MLB

CONTRERAS CONTROLS JOBA RULES

DETROIT – The Joba Rules may change, but if they do it will come from organizational pitching guru Nardi Contreras and nobody else.

The Rules state that the 21-year-old Joba Chamberlain needs a day off for every inning he pitches and that he can’t work two innings if he hasn’t had two days of rest.

Since the flame-throwing Yankee rookie has been converted from minor-league starter to major-league reliever and will be used as a starter next year, his workload is being carefully monitored. However, in his last four outings, Chamberlain has averaged 11 pitches.

So could the Joba Rules change later in the year if the pitch count remains low?

“I am not saying it will change, but that’s up to [Contreras],” manager Joe Torre said. “I think it’s been talked about. I have great respect for Nardi Contreras.”

Armed with a 100 mph fastball and filthy slider, Chamberlain has appeared in seven games, worked nine innings, allowed three hits, fanned 15 and walked two.

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Hearing a lot of talk between his players about why the Yankees and Tigers had to wait four hours to start Friday night’s game, Torre decided to address the issue before last night’s 7-2 victory over the Tigers instead of regretting not saying anything and watching his club play sluggishly.

“I basically told them it was for me,” Torre said of the three-minute meeting.

“If I didn’t say it and I looked out there and they looked lethargic, I would have kicked myself. It was more precautionary, knowing how much conversation was going on about should we have played the game. It’s over with and let’s move on. That’s basically what it was.”

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Roger Clemens told Torre and the trainers that a blister on the side of his right foot didn’t bother him on the mound Friday night, when he pitched ineffectively against the Tigers at Comerica Park.

“He will probably kill me for telling you,” Torre said of Clemens, who gave up six runs, six hits and three walks in five innings of what turned into a 9-6 loss in 11 innings that ended at 3:30 a.m.

“He was trying to do different things with it, but he insists it had nothing do with it. He said it didn’t affect his pitching.”

Clemens was more upset with the walks, two of which turned into runs.

“The walks are so unnecessary for me,” said Clemens, who watched Cameron Maybin draw a leadoff base on balls in the third and score, and Pudge Rodriguez do the same in the fourth. It was Rodriguez’s sixth walk of the year.

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GM Brian Cashman was on the phone with Torre at 4:45 yesterday morning wanting to know if the manager felt he needed a fresh arm in the bullpen after the Yankees employed six relievers Friday night-Saturday morning.

“Joe said he felt we were OK,” said Cashman.