Joba Continues String of Good Starts

(REUTERS/Scott Audette)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	2		6	12	0
TB	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2		2	6	1

WP - Joba Chamberlain (7-2)
LP - Matt Garza (7-8)
Another big win for Joba Chamberlain and the New York Yankees. With last night's win they moved another game up in the AL East standings, took another series, and have effectively buried the Rays in front of the Boss.

As it always is when he pitches, Joba stole the show. He pitched eight easy, shutout innings and since the all star break, has really shown we have such high hopes for him. He had faced the minimum number of batters for the first four innings and really only had any sort of trouble in the fifth inning. This is becoming a theme in his starts and the fifth was, yet again, the key inning. He got a quick, easy out to start the inning off but then walked Carlos Pena. Pat Burrel K'ed for the second out but Joba would walk Gabe Gross to put the go ahead run at the plate in Dioner Navarro. Luckily, Navarro innocently hit an easy fly ball to Damon and Joba emerged unscathed and ready to go another three innings. Joba's stats for the game were dominant, threw eight innings he gave up no runs on only three hits. He only walked two while K'ing five. His ERA is down to 3.58 and that innings limit looms large right now. Bruney ran into some trouble in the ninth but Mariano came in to restore order and get the final outs.

The offense struck early and often. Jeter started the game off with a triple and scored on a Mark Teixeira single to give the Yanks an early lead, really the only run they would need to win the game. The next few innings were a mess of ground ball double plays and poor hitting with RISP but Cano drove in a run in the fourth on a fielders choice and later crushed a solo homer. His buddy Melky and Teixeira would also hit home runs in the eight to put the game out of reach. It was frustrating because they could have scored more but its really tough to complain about six runs being scored.

So the Yankees continue to roll and will try to keep things going tonight at eight against the White Sox. George was in attendance, which is always nice to see and the Yankees finally have some breathing room. Tampa can kiss the division good bye with 7.5 games between them and the Yankees. Meanwhile, with Boston losing last night the Yanks are 3.5 ahead of them. That also means they're five ahead of Texas for the Wild Card. Obviously, they've got absolutely nothing locked up but things look pretty good right now if you're a Yankees fan.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Jeter, SS	5	1	2	0	0	1	2	.323
Damon, LF	4	0	0	0	1	0	3	.272
Teixeira, 1B	3	1	2	2	1	0	2	.285
Rodriguez, A, 3B	5	1	1	0	0	1	4	.251
Matsui, H, DH	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	.259
1-Ransom, PR-DH	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.200
Posada, C	4	0	1	1	0	1	2	.284
Cano, 2B	4	1	1	2	0	1	2	.308
Swisher, RF	3	0	1	0	1	1	2	.239
Cabrera, Me, CF	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	.290
Totals	36	6	12	6	3	6	18
1-Ran for Matsui, H in the 8th.
BATTING 2B: Matsui, H (17, Garza). 3B: Jeter (1, Garza). HR: Cano (16, 6th inning off Garza, 0 on, 2 out), Cabrera, Me (9, 9th inning off Wheeler, 0 on, 0 out), Teixeira (26, 9th inning off Wheeler, 0 on, 2 out). TB: Jeter 4; Teixeira 5; Rodriguez, A; Matsui, H 3; Posada; Cano 4; Swisher; Cabrera, Me 5. RBI: Teixeira 2 (74), Cano 2 (56), Posada (47), Cabrera, Me (36). 2-out RBI: Cano; Teixeira. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Teixeira; Swisher; Rodriguez, A; Jeter. GIDP: Rodriguez, A 2; Swisher. Team RISP: 2-for-10. Team LOB: 7.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Chamberlain (W, 7-2)	8.0	3	0	0	2	5	0	3.58
Bruney	0.1	3	2	2	0	0	1	6.16
Rivera, Ma	0.2	0	0	0	1	2	0	2.08

RAYS STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Joba Chamberlain (Probably the best start of his career.)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mark Teixeira (2-for-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB, another gem in the field.)

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees @ White Sox
Game Time: 8:11 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, MLBN, WCBS
LHP Andy Pettitte (8-6, 5.19) vs. RHP Gavin Floyd (8-6, 4.24)