TRENTON — Joba Chamberlain’s fastball hit 97. His strikes-to-balls ratio was superb, 23-7. Strikeouts came with knee-buckling curves and a slider in the dirt. Physically, Chamberlain said he feels he is ready to rejoin the Yankees.
“Without a doubt,” Chamberlain said after his latest rehab outing, a 1 ¹/₃ inning, 30-pitch, one-hit, three-strikeout performance for Double-A Trenton in a 3-2 win over Harrisburg last night. “Obviously, the physical part’s over. Now it’s the mental part. That’s the hardest thing. Knowing I can throw everything with conviction was the least of my concerns. Now it’s just getting in the pace of the game, getting in the flow and having an idea of what you want to do pitch-to-pitch.”
Chamberlain, who had Tommy John surgery last summer, then fractured his ankle on a trampoline in March, last pitched for the Yankees in June 2011. As badly as the Yankees want him back and as badly as he wants to get back, no one is going to rush matters and cut corners now. Chamberlain thought despite his good feelings, he might throw “maybe another one … [tomorrow].”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi made a similar suggestion before his team’s game against the Red Sox at the Stadium last night.
“I haven’t talked to [general manager] Brian [Cashman] about that. We will evaluate tonight and maybe another [outing] possibly. It’s real important to see where he is at,” Girardi said, stressing patience. “You don’t want to rush a player because of something happening to somebody else. Joba hasn’t pitched in over a year at this level and we have to make sure he is prepared.”
The plan was to try to get Chamberlain in last night’s game with runners on, have him finish the inning and then work a full inning from the start. It almost worked. He entered in the seventh with two out, none on. Chamberlain, who was the winning pitcher after the Thunder rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth, saw the first man reach on a botched pop-up, got a fly out then was superb in the eighth after yielding a single.
“Everything was good,” Chamberlain said, appreciating a nine-pitch at-bat by Harrisburg’s Tim Pahuta, an eventual slider strikeout victim. “To be able to get into some extended at-bats … and seeing some guys [with] a plan at the plate, that’s big.”
It was Chamberlain’s seventh rehab appearance — his previous came with Single-A Tampa and the Gulf Coast League Yankees. Combined, he threw 9 ¹/₃ innings, allowing four hits and one earned run and striking out 10.
“The obstacle now is just mentally getting prepared,” he said. “I’ve kind of [faced] every situation there can be.
“I feel I’ve done a pretty good job [with] pitches I can go to if my fastball is missing. So without a doubt in my mind I feel like I can go get guys out and help us in the big leagues.”
— Additional reporting by George A. King III