JOBA has to learn, too.
Sure, all those Yankees blue T-shirts proclaim that Joba Rules. But he also has to learn, and now we’ll see what Joba Chamberlain is made of, because his baseball life is no longer a fairy tale at Yankee Stadium.
This wasn’t the midges that beat Chamberlain, it was the 5-foot-10 David Dellucci and some questionable pitch selection from the young right-hander.
As the autopsy was going on in the Yankees clubhouse of the stunning, 5-3 loss to the Indians, a game in which Chamberlain surrendered a two-out, eighth-inning, three-run home run to pinch-hitter Dellucci, shocking the Stadium and wiping out a 3-2 Yankees lead.
I asked veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins what Chamberlain will learn from this affair. Chamberlain had proclaimed that this loss will teach him to “attack more with his fastball.”
Hawkins has been around major league baseball for 12 years, and knows life can be difficult. He leaned his head back in thought and answered: “I thought the guys he should have been throwing breaking balls to he wasn’t.”
That is the ultimate lesson Chamberlain must take from this defeat. Afterward, Joe Girardi pointed out what a great fastball hitter Dellucci is and how he can turn on one in an instant.
It was Chamberlain’s second straight fastball to Dellucci that was creamed. These were the first regular-season runs he gave up at the Stadium in his short career and his first regular-season blown save. This was a night when Chamberlain fell in love with his slider and curve ball a little too much to the earlier hitters. He walked Grady Sizemore on a 3-2 slider to start the inning. He also walked Jhonny Peralta, mixing in too many breaking balls.
There were a number of times Chamberlain shook off veteran catcher Jose Molina. When you throw 96-100 mph, sometimes you just have to let the fastball fly, establish at first, then go to work with the slider. Like Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, who are learning the hard way to attack the zone with their best stuff, Chamberlain must learn, too.
He may have been trying to be a little too tricky, throwing that curve ball and slider, because the Indians have seen a lot of Chamberlain his short time in the majors. Also, don’t forget that Chamberlain has been a starter most of his life and still thinks like a starter, wanting to go with all his pitches.
He got ahead of Dellucci on a fastball, but then elevated another fastball right where Dellucci could handle it, and Chamberlain’s night collapsed. The loss snapped the Yankees three-game winning streak. Chamberlain’s breaking ball would have been better suited for Dellucci. More fastballs might have been the ticket to the two batters he walked, Sizemore and Peralta.
It was Dellucci’s 10th pinch-hit home run of his career and the first since June 13, 2006, against the Mets when he was with Philadelphia. That home run came against Aaron Heilman, who has a penchant for giving up big home runs.
That’s not Chamberlain’s style. It was the first home run allowed by Chamberlain this year and the second since came out of nowhere to take New York by storm.
“You’ve got to attack all the time,” Chamberlain said. “You can’t take a pitch off.”
We know that Joba is not perfect. He has lost before. We know he has slipped in the past, but this time he fell flat on his face at Yankee Stadium. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back from the experience. Chamberlain has faced all kinds of challenges in his past. This is another challenge.
Concluded Hawkins, who happened to be wearing his Joba Rules shirt: “It’s not a mistake, it’s a lesson learned. He’s going to be fine.”
Joba learns, too.