Yankees: God’s in Heaven, Joba Chamberlain’s in the Pen

All winter I kept having the same reoccurring nightmare.

In my dream I’m at the Stadium, the sun is shining, the air is crisp,  It’s a pivotal game in September against an elite American League team (the dream isn’t clear on this point).  Joba takes the mound to start the game and pitches an electrifying 7 inning, 2 hit, 11 strikeout beauty. Mo is warming up in the pen and the crowd is buzzing, anticipating a Yankee victory.

Then the bullpen comes in and gives up 5 runs in the eight and the Yanks let another one slip away.

For the past several years, the Yanks have dominated innings one through six with offense and the ninth inning with Mo. They’ve generally lost in innings seven and eight. No matter what Joba’s potential is as a starter, he was simply other worldly as a reliever. I predict that, before long, those once treaturous innings will be known as “Joba Time”.

As good as Pabelbon was for Boston last season, it was the addition of Okajima that made him so effective. OK would come in and shut the other team down. Facing Pabelbon in the ninth, where all he had to do was give it all he has to get the final three outs, hitters knew it was now or never. That sense of urgency had to add several miles onto Pab’s fastball.

That’s what Joba in the pen does for the Yanks...it makes Mo that more effective.

It reminds me, and many others I’m sure,  of the 1996 season when Mo was the set up man for John Wettland, The opposing batters would look visibly deflated when he entered the game, walking up to plate slightly less enthusiastically than condemned men went to the gallows. By the time Wetland made his ninth inning appearance Mo had beaten them into submission, they had all the resolve of a wet towel. The game was over after the sixth inning.

As good as he was, Wettland was never as effective before or after that season.

I have two favorite Joba moments from last season that illustrate why he has what it takes to be a dominant reliver, Talent and composure.

The first was against the Tampa (then) Devil Rays. Carl Crawford, a real “Yankee Killer” was at bat. Joba had a strike on him and threw him a pitch that looked like it was going to hang over the plate but dropped like a stone when Crawford swung for strike two. He threw the exact same pitch in the exact same place for a swinging strike three to end the inning. Crawford just threw his bat on the ground in total disgust and just glared at Chamberlain as he walked off the mound.

Crawford looked mad, mad at himself for swinging at that pitch twice in a row, but also mad a Joba for being able to throw that pitch twice in a row. He seemed to be saying, “How dare you be that good!”

My second “Joba” moment came during a late season game against the Red Sox at Fenway. Joba had just given up a home run to Mike Lowell, the first earned run and home run he had allowed in the majors. Ron Guidry, the Yankee pitching coach quickly came out of the dugout to see how Joba was taking this and to see if he needed to be settled down a bit before continuing, Chamberlain just shrugged and actually patted Guidry on the back, as if it were Guidry who needed to be settled down.
 

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