Joba Rules...Again

The Indians can keep Cliff Lee if Joba Chamberlain (6-2) pitches the way he has his last two outings. After allowing one run in 6 2/3 with eight strikeouts against the Tigers on Sunday, Joba looked even more impressive tonight against the A's. The young righty went seven innings, allowed just one run on two hits, and struck out six batters. In doing so, he lowered his ERA to 3.86. Oh by the way, The Yankees won the game 8-3 for their eighth consecutive win coming out of the All-Star Break.

This game was a lot closer than the final score indicates, just 2-1 heading into the eight inning. Heres how the Bombers got things started: the Yankees scored two runs in the third, highlighted by a Derek Jeter RBI single and a Johnny Damon fielder's choice. The Bombers tacked on another run in the fifth and six innings, off another Damon fielder's choice and a Hideki Matsui RBI groundout, respectively.

The key inning in this game was the fifth though. With the score only 2-1 in favor of New York, Oakland threatened by putting runners on second and third with one out. Joba then struck out the next two batters, Mark Ellis and Eric Patterson on two filthy sliders. Joba then gave his infamous fist pump, before heading back into the dugout. The Yankees would then blow this game open in the 8th, scoring four runs. The inning was higlighted by a Jorge Posada solo bomb to leftfield, and a couple more RBI singles from Jeter and Damon. The homerun was Jorgy's 13th of the season.

Cruise control is the only way to describe the Yankees right now. They have won 8 games in a row to start the second half, and remain 2 1/2 games up on the Red Sox in the AL East. Andy Pettitte (8-5) will try to make it nine tomorrow. The lefty is coming off one of his stronger starts of the year, when he went past seven innings and allowed just one run against the Orioles on Monday.

Back to Joba. I said after his last start that the important thing for him was stringing good starts together. With his performance tonight he did just that. Joba went deep into the game, keeping his pitch count low, and attacking the A's hitters. He was throwing first pitch strikes, and not getting deep into counts. Everytime Joba has a start like this, it will silence the Joba to the bullpen talk even more. If Joba can get on a roll now, the Yankees will have the deepest starting rotation in baseball. Even more importantly, they will have a 23 year-old who is perhaps poised to finally put it all together.

Tidbits:

• The Yankees have won eight straight games out of the All-Star Break. Interestingly enough, they did the exact same feat last year. Also in 2007, they won their first six out of seven post break.
• Johnny Damon had three RBI's tonight on just one hit. Two fielder's choices accounted for the other two.
• New York is 4-0 against Oakland this year.
• What was up with Oakland Starter Brett Anderson (5-8) in the dugout tonight? Everytime the cameras were on him, he looked spaced out, or was playing with his necklace like he had OCD. Weird. The 21 year-old lefty certaintly has talent though. He came into this game with a 21 inning scoreless streak.

(AP Photos/Frank Franklin II)