CLEVELAND – So here is a new Joba Rule: He is not lord of the flies.
Chamberlain’s biggest opponents last night were pesky and relentless. And he also had to deal with the Indians.
In a bizarre bottom of the eighth inning, Chamberlain did all the swatting. Cleveland never got a hit. He faced the first six hitters in the Indians lineup, but was done in most by a species known as the Lake Erie midge. It turns out the Lake Erie midge is the David Ortiz of insects, showing a particular skill at harming the Yankees.
With thousands of these flying ants nipping around his head, Chamberlain lost control of his pitches and a one-run lead. The Yankees ultimately fell 2-1 in 11 innings when Luis Vizcaino surrendered a two-out, bases-loaded single to Travis Hafner.
But this Game 2 setback will be remembered for an eighth-inning infestation that might lead to a new way for the Yankees to exit a playoff series: Fly out.
“Just when you thought you had seen it all . . .,” Derek Jeter said. “Talk about a home-field advantage. They let the bugs out.”
The Yankees trail two-games-to-none. They are not hitting, again that notably includes Alex Rodriguez. They have to win three in a row with the uncertain veteran duo of Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina due to start at home. The franchise is now on the brink of a major facelift with Joe Torre’s job again in peril, and an assortment of key players including Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera eligible to leave via free agency.
Yet the Yankees were so close to tying this series, stealing home-field advantage. Andy Pettitte pitched gallantly, allowing a hit in every inning but holding the Indians to one hit in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Pettitte looked like he might make Melky Cabrera’s third-inning homer stand when he put two on with one out in the seventh.
Torre faced a difficult choice: Stick with the indomitable Pettitte or summon the otherworldly Chamberlain. He selected Chamberlain and the rookie blew away Franklin Gutierrez with three straight sliders and induced a fly out from Casey Blake.
But it was akin to a before-and-after picture from the seventh to the eighth. Suddenly, like a plague, the midges swooped in and Chamberlain was a different, distracted pitcher. He motioned for help while warming up. He was sprayed down with repellant. Nevertheless, that worked only minimally.
“They bugged me, but you have to deal with it,” Chamberlain said. “I will never make an excuse. I let my guys down.”
Chamberlain was mature in taking responsibility, not hinting at an alibi, noting that the Indians had to deal with the insects, as well. But it was obvious Chamberlain was the most unsettled. What has made him amazing is that for such a young power pitcher he has pinpoint control. But he would walk Grady Sizemore on four pitches leading off, and finished the inning with two walks, two wild pitches (the second of which scored Sizemore) and a hit by pitch.
“No excuses,” Chamberlain reiter ated. “I had to do a better job of executing my pitches.”
Throughout the inning, Jeter and Rodriguez were wav ing their hands to try to smack the bugs away up to the in stant of the pitch. In between pitches, Chamberlain flicked his glove as if he were hitting a box ing speed bag. Yet crew chief Bruce Froemming said afterward he never considered delaying the game and Torre said he never considered asking. Froemming called the swarm an “irritant” and compared it with a light rain, though Jeter said, “There were blankets of them out there.”
Strangely, the insect problem largely abated after a half inning that Rodriguez termed “weird.”
The oddity kept Chamberlain from navigating the eighth. Instead, he suffered his first blown save in the same place Rivera blew his first postseason save. That was Game 4 of the 1997 ALDS at Jacobs Field, when Sandy Alomar Jr. took Rivera deep in the eighth inning. That blown save eventually led to the Yankees losing that series.
It may turn out that Chamberlain’s failure will have the same result. The man who essentially turned AL hitters into mosquitoes was undone by insects.