The Sommer Frieze

With Aceves and Hughes leading the pack for the 5th starter position, Joba Chamberlain looks at today and sees his stats in last place, behind those two as well as Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre.

It’s put up or shut up time. Andy Pettitte starts against the Phils today, Damaso Marte gets an inning, but eyes will be on Joba. His first two outings were terrible, and you can excuse one because of a bout with the flu (of which I am fighting now, so I clearly empathize).

But Joba has to show something… and now. Back with the results later.  

In the first, Gardner singled, stole 2nd but was left stranded. Rollins doubled off Pettitte, stole third and scored on a Howard single. Andy K’d two. 1-0 Phils.  Cervelli had a two out single in the second but was stranded. Andy gave up singles to Ransom and Castro and a SF to Ruiz in the 2nd. 2-0 Phils after 2. Nick Johnson had a two-out hit in the third but was stranded. Andy has a scoreless 3rd, one hit.  

RBI double for Cervelli in the 4th. 2-1 Phils after 3 1/2.  

Pettitte’s day is done. A shaky beginning, then he settled in. 4 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 1 walk, 4 K.

Encouraging day for Gardner, who has his detractors. He triples (reminding us of that great speed, he just needs to hit enough to take advantage of it) and scores on a game-tying SF by Johnson.  

Thank goodness this wasn’t the Marte we saw in the WS. Both Pettitte and Marte are facing live batters for the first time. Pettitte? Decent. Marte, not so. 3-run HR by Werth. Marte gave up 4 hits and retired no one. According to Chad Jennings at LoHud, Marte was removed from the game after taking a Ryan Howard liner off his back. Amaury Sanit finished the inning. In the 6th, the Yanks got two hits off Contreras (including Cervelli’s third of the game) but no runs. Time for Joba to show something.

Joba gets two outs, gives up a bloop double then an RBI single. Good day for Cervelli who throws out a runner trying to steal. We’ll see how Joba bounces back.

He winds up going three, 1 R, 2 H, 1 walk, 3 K. A good outing, considering the run basically came on a bloop double. Is it enough to get him even with Hughes and Aceves? Probably not, but it puts him back in the picture.

The team was 0 for 9 with RISP today.    

Update: Chad Jennings at LoHud reports that Marte is fine. He also adds that (and I was just looking at the boxscore) Chamberlain pitched a “bottom of the 9th” even though the home team won. A 1-2-3 with 2 ks. So 4 IP in all, 1 R, 2 H, 1 walk and 5 Ks. The Joba we’d like to see….whether as a starter or a reliever. Nice bounceback.

Speaking of bouncebacks, time for yours truly to do so, after he has spent most of the past three days trying to get over the flu.