Hopefully, Joba learned rules

Ken Davidoff

May 7, 2008

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It makes sense, if you think about it. If Joba Chamberlain celebrates strikeouts with a fist pump, serving up a day's work for Mike and the Mad Dog in the process, then there's symmetry to his reaction last night.

We've just never seen Joba in such a setting before.

Upon surrendering a two out, three-run homer to former Yankee David Dellucci in the eighth inning of last night's 5-3 Yankees loss to Cleveland, Chamberlain stepped off the mound and keeled over. He looked as if someone had punched him in the stomach, leaving him breathless.

Later, the YES cameras showed him sitting in the dugout with a towel wrapped around his head. Man, he took this one hard.

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So for informational purposes, it will be interesting to see what happens the next time Chamberlain comes into a situation like this - jogging in from the bullpen to close the door on an opposing team, to hand the baton over to Mariano Rivera, who wound up getting the night off.

I'd bet a large bag of money that he'll be just fine. Nevertheless, part of watching a team like these Yankees develop is taking in the youngsters' new experiences, and their new challenges. There were clear lessons to be learned from this one.

"Letting your team down isn't the best feeling in the world," a calm Chamberlain said, some 15 minutes after the game ended, "and that's what I did."

"In the long run, this will make him a better pitcher," manager Joe Girardi said. "It'll make him tougher inside. It's all part of maturity."

Really, the Yankees should hope that it makes Chamberlain a tad humbler.

It's one thing to be confident in your stuff, and it's interesting that Joba is now using his curveball along his with his explosive fastball and slider. But, as YES analyst David Cone noted to me on his way out the door last night - and I assume he made the same point to you viewers - when an experienced, respected catcher like Jose Molina calls for the fastball three times, as he did with a full count on Chamberlain's first hitter Grady Sizemore, and Chamberlain shakes off the sign three times, then the kid should look in the mirror.

This seemed like it was going to be such a fruitful night for the Yankees, a fourth straight victory to further wipe away the clouds of tension that hovered here just last week. Andy Pettitte rebounded from two shaky starts to contain the unimpressive Indians offense. Jason Giambi displayed signs of life, beating out a double-play relay in the first inning for one RBI and slamming an opposite-field double, of all things, in the fourth to plate a second run.

Kyle Farnsworth picked up Pettitte in the seventh - this is the best Farnsworth has looked in his three years as a Yankee, isn't it? - and the Yankees seemed set to go to their untouchable combination of Chamberlain and Rivera.

Yet Chamberlain didn't look right from the outset of his appearance. After Jamey Carroll sacrificed Sizemore over to second, Joba walked Jhonny Peralta. Ryan Garko popped out to rightfield for the second out, and for sure, Chamberlain would get out of this with the lead intact.

But in the managerial move of the night, Indians skipper Eric Wedge pinch hit Dellucci for Franklin Gutierrez. And Dellucci drilled an 0-and-1 fastball into the rightfield seats.

You don't want to hear this, Yankees fans, but really, this is what this Yankees season is all about. It's about growing pains. You knew that Chamberlain was going to have a night like this at some point, didn't you? Might as well be when the Yankees came in on a three-game winning streak and have their stopper, Chien-Ming Wang, going tonight to start another streak.

"It's over with," Chamberlain declared afterward. "It sucks when it's happening, definitely. But you know it's part of the job."

The discussion about Joba's future job can be tabled today. Instead, we await his next time out there, to see if he comes in as confident - and perhaps, at the same time, more open-minded.

Less emotional? That's more of a long-term project.