06/01: Joba Dominates Tribe, Yanks Win 3 of 4
Posted by: Seamus
The Yankees were able to take three out four in their series with the Indians, this time finding a 5–2 victory behind some great pitching from Joba Chamberlain and some suspect (to put it mildly) pitching from Jeremy Sowers and the Cleveland Indians. The victory puts the Yankees a full game ahead of Boston in the A.L. East, and the Yanks are now 15–4 since their 15–17 start to the season.
Joba Chamberlain was dominant tonight in what may have been the best start of his young career. Joba allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits in 8 innings of work. His highlights also included a great play in the 5th, in which Indians' catcher Kelly Shoppach popped up on a bunt down the 3rd base line. Joba ran to the line, about halfway between home and 3rd base, and promptly leaped like a cat chasing after the cap of a milk carton, caught the ball and doubled off Ryan Garko trying to get back to second.
Say what you want about Joba, there are still critics who say he should be in the bullpen and hasn't performed up to his potential as a starter, but let's remember he is (even if it's only nominally) the Yankees' #5 starter and he is 3–1 with a 3.71 E.R.A. and averaging over a strikeout an inning. His WHIP is a bit high but when you average a strikeout every inning, you're bound to take a lot of zero and one-out opportunities away from opposing lineups. And I have a feeling he's not going to be at 1.57 all year.
As for the offense, let's just say if this were a video game, the Yankees played this one on "easy" difficulty. They left 9 men on base, but were still able to come away with 5 runs, thanks to a 4-run 7th inning and a combined 11 walks by Indians pitchers.
This stat has been beaten around like a dead horse already, but I figure I should mention that tonight's game was the 18th consecutive game the Yankees played without committing an error, which is an all-time record.
Also via Patrick via ESPN, I thought I should note that Derek Jeter is one of only five players in history with 2,600 hits, 200 home runs and 1,000 RBI in their first 15 seasons, with the other four being Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Al Simmons. I think it's fun to bring up Jeter-related numbers because critics of him are somehow stuck to the idea that Yankee fans tout his "intangibles" despite his numbers, when in reality the intangible factors are simply a nice addition. Make no mistake about it, if you take Derek Jeter's name off of a page and just show his career stat line to somebody as some anonymous player, he is a bona fide Hall of Famer and one of the best hitting shortstops in Major League history. That's not something you can say about every other Captain Intangibles around baseball.
Anyway, the Yanks will be home tomorrow night to begin a seven-game homestand and will be starting another three-game set with the Texas Rangers beginning at 7:05 ET. Vicente Padilla and A.J. Burnett will be the starting pitchers.
Recap records: Patrick: 14–7, Seamus: 12–10, Andrew: 4–4
Joba Chamberlain was dominant tonight in what may have been the best start of his young career. Joba allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits in 8 innings of work. His highlights also included a great play in the 5th, in which Indians' catcher Kelly Shoppach popped up on a bunt down the 3rd base line. Joba ran to the line, about halfway between home and 3rd base, and promptly leaped like a cat chasing after the cap of a milk carton, caught the ball and doubled off Ryan Garko trying to get back to second.
Say what you want about Joba, there are still critics who say he should be in the bullpen and hasn't performed up to his potential as a starter, but let's remember he is (even if it's only nominally) the Yankees' #5 starter and he is 3–1 with a 3.71 E.R.A. and averaging over a strikeout an inning. His WHIP is a bit high but when you average a strikeout every inning, you're bound to take a lot of zero and one-out opportunities away from opposing lineups. And I have a feeling he's not going to be at 1.57 all year.
As for the offense, let's just say if this were a video game, the Yankees played this one on "easy" difficulty. They left 9 men on base, but were still able to come away with 5 runs, thanks to a 4-run 7th inning and a combined 11 walks by Indians pitchers.
This stat has been beaten around like a dead horse already, but I figure I should mention that tonight's game was the 18th consecutive game the Yankees played without committing an error, which is an all-time record.
Also via Patrick via ESPN, I thought I should note that Derek Jeter is one of only five players in history with 2,600 hits, 200 home runs and 1,000 RBI in their first 15 seasons, with the other four being Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Al Simmons. I think it's fun to bring up Jeter-related numbers because critics of him are somehow stuck to the idea that Yankee fans tout his "intangibles" despite his numbers, when in reality the intangible factors are simply a nice addition. Make no mistake about it, if you take Derek Jeter's name off of a page and just show his career stat line to somebody as some anonymous player, he is a bona fide Hall of Famer and one of the best hitting shortstops in Major League history. That's not something you can say about every other Captain Intangibles around baseball.
Anyway, the Yanks will be home tomorrow night to begin a seven-game homestand and will be starting another three-game set with the Texas Rangers beginning at 7:05 ET. Vicente Padilla and A.J. Burnett will be the starting pitchers.
Recap records: Patrick: 14–7, Seamus: 12–10, Andrew: 4–4
Patrick wrote:
Patrick