Jays Steal Joba's Thunder

Joba Chamberlain's first start in the major leagues didn't go quite as planned and the Yankees bullpen clearly had no plan last night as the Toronto Blue Jays thumped the Yankees 9-3. Chamberlain's much ballyhooed outing lasted only 2.1 innings after he threw his 62nd pitch. A 35 pitch 1st inning put a crimp in Joe Girardi's plans.

Chamberlain walked the lead off hitter, Shannon Stewart and balked him to 2nd. Stewart moved to 3rd on Jose Molina's passed ball, and scored on Alex Rios' ground out. With 2 outs things looked pretty good, but Scott Rolen singled to right and Chamberlain issued back to back walks to Matt Stairs and Lyle Overbay before finally blowing a 3rd strike past Rod Barajas to end the inning. Chamberlain screamed in his glove, ala Andy Pettitte, as he departed the mound.

The Yankees got their highly touted rookie right off the hook in their half of the 1st. Johnny Damon lead off with a triple, but it appeared he would be stranded after Derek Jeter grounded to 3rd and Bobby Abreu struck out. But Jays starter Roy Halladay hit Alex Rodriguez in the elbow with a break pitch, and Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi followed with RBI singles.

Chamberlain retired the Jays in order in the 2nd, but when he walked Rios with one out in the 3rd, his day was done. The crowd wasn't there to see 31-yr old Dan Geise, but the long time minor league came on for his 9th major league appearance. The Blue Jays quickly tied the game when Rios stole 2nd and moved to 3rd on Molina's throwing error, and scored on Rolen's ground out to Robinson Cano.

Geise (pronounced gīs) ran into trouble again in the 4th allowing back to back hits to Barajas and Brad Wilkerson, and a go ahead sacrifice fly to David Eckstein. But the right-hander settled down after that and kept the Yankees in the game. That is until the rest of the bullpen took over.

Edwar Ramirez, who was unscored upon for his first 13 appearances before giving up a run his last time out, couldn't retire a batter, and couldn't throw strikes. He issued 3 walks and allowed a hit, while being charged with 4 runs. He also allowed the 2 runners he inherited to score. LaTroy Hawkins allowed 3 inherited runners to score as well in another ineffective outing.

News and Notes

On a night when he wasn't that effective, Roy Halladay only needed to go 6 innings to get the win. The Yankees scratched a final run against reliever Brian Tallet.

Johnny Damon was 3-4 to push his average up to .301 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. He's 18-40 (.425) during the streak.

Derek Jeter's 2 hits gave him 2,415, tying him with Mickey Mantle for 3rd place on the all-time franchise list. Babe Ruth is 2nd with 2,518.

Dan Graziano did a nice feature in today's Star Ledger on Dan Geise. The best part are the 2 references to "The Office".

Ed Price of the Ledger reports that Jorge Posada will rejoin the team today, but there's still debate over whether he'll be activated today or tomorrow. Either way it probably means a return trip to the minors for Chris Britton.

Ian Kennedy played catch for the first time since going on the DL.

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An Underwhelming Joba

Joba Chamberlain made his major league debut as a starter tonight, and no, he did not strike out every batter he faced. Chamberlain was removed with one out in the 3rd inning after throwing 62 pitches. He allowed just 1 hit, but gave up 2 runs, 1 of which was earned, while walking 4 and striking out 3.

He'll go at it again on Sunday against the Royals when his pitch count will be further increased. Chamberlain was replaced by Dan Giese, who was pitching in only his 9th big league and his first as a Yankee.

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Yankees vs. Blue Jays - June 3

Like you don't already know that Joba Chamberlain is pitching tonight. There's even more pressure on him since Roy Halladay is going for the Blue Jays. And it's a really big buzz night for NY baseball since Pedro Martinez returns tonight for the Mets in San Francisco.

The Yankees and Blue Jays haven't met since the opening week when the Yankees took 2 of 3 at the Stadium. Halladay lost that night in a tough showdown with Chien-Ming Wang. Chamberlain won the final game of that series after a good start by Phil Hughes (you remember him, right?). A.J. Burnett beat Mike Mussina in the lone game won by the Blue Jays.

The Jays seem to be hit by injuries every year and this year is no different. They had lost set up man Casey Janssen before the season even started, and closer B.J. Ryan started late due to his recovery from Tommy John surgery. May 10 was a tough day in Toronto. That's when start centerfielder Vernon Wells (broken wrist 6-8 weeks) and last year's closer Jeremy Accardo (right forearm tightness) went on the DL.

Defensive wizard John McDonald went on the DL with a badly sprained on May 7, and starting catcher Greg Zaun recently joined the growing list with a strained right elbow. Despite all of that, the Blue Jays are 31-28 and 5 games behind the Rays in the AL East.

They've done it all with pitching. Halladay (6-5, 2.93), A.J. Burnett (5-5, 4.32), Jesse Litsch (7-1, 3.18), Shaun Marcum (5-3, 2.63), and Dustin McGowan (4-4, 3.95) make up, arguably, the best rotation in baseball. Their 3.32 ERA is the best in the AL, and it had better be, because the Blue Jays offense stinks.

Lyle Overbay is the leading hitter at just .278. Wells missed the last 3 weeks, but still leads the team with 24 RBI. Matt Stairs is the top home run hitter with just 6. The Blue Jays, money ball disciples, are starting to do things a little different...finally. Alex Rios has 12 steals in 15 attempts. Overall though, they have the 4th fewest runs in the AL, and only the Royals have hit less home runs.

The pitching probables for the series:

Tuesday: Roy Halladay vs. Joba Chamberlain
Wednesday: Jesse Litsch vs. Mike Mussina
Thursday: Dustin McGowan vs. Chien-Ming Wang


Yankees vs. Halladay

Abreu 4-15 (.267)
Betemit 0-7
Cabrera 5-18 (.278) 1 HR 1 RBI
Cano 6-16 (.375) 2 HR 4 RBI
Damon 22-70 (.314) 1 HR 2 RBI 8 BB 7 SB
Duncan 0-1
Giambi 17-56 (.304) 3 HR 7 RBI 6 BB
Jeter 17-65 (.262) 4 RBI 18 K
Matsui 7-37 (.189) 1 HR 3 RBI
Moeller 0-3
Molina 1-8
A-Rod 15-50 (.300) 10 RBI

and Joe Girardi was 0-1 with 1 walk. ;)

Blue Jays vs. Chamberlain


Eckstein 0-1
Hill 0-3
Overbay 0-1
Rios 1-4
Stairs 1-1
Stewart 0-1
Thigpen 0-2


Tonight's lineup from Peter Abraham:

Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Giambi 1B
Cano 2B
Molina C
Cabrera CF

Chad Jennings reports that Jason Lane has not made any decisions as to whether he will opt out of his contract or not.

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