MLB

JOBA SET TO EMBRACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Joba Chamberlain doesn’t know if his future includes pitching out of the bullpen, but he can say without hesitation that he loved the opportunity he received setting up Mariano Rivera during the season’s final two months.

“I got to work with the greatest closer ever to play this game,” Chamberlain said last night after the Yankees’ season ended with a 6-4 loss to the Indians in Game 4 of the AL Division Series. “You’d be dumb not to embrace it. That’s something if you didn’t take advantage of, it would be your own fault.”

Though Chamberlain was hit on the arm with a fly ball during batting practice yesterday, he was available to pitch. Joe Torre opted to instead use Rivera for the season’s final 12/3 innings.

For Chamberlain the last four games were part of the learning curve. He appeared in two games during the series and surrendered a run in each, most infamously last Friday’s “Bugs Game” at Jacobs Field in which the rookie right-hander was distracted by flying pests known as midges, and allowed the tying run in the eighth, with two wild pitches as the main culprit.

“I had a great time, and I’m going to be better for it,” Chamberlain said, when asked about the season. “I can’t wait to start next year.”

Whether that will be in the rotation or the bullpen is a discussion for the offseason.

Chamberlain came up through the Yankees’ farm system as a starter, but shifted to the bullpen this season.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said.