P.M. Cleveland Indians links: Joba 'Midge' Chamberlain unbugged by apparent Girardi snub

Two long balls sully a good Jake Westbrook outing.

Cleveland, Ohio -- One of the few good things about following a team that is 41-58 is the absence of clubhouse draaaaaaaama.

For example, in the Yankees' 3-2 over the Tribe at Progressive Field Monday night, the big question was not who would close, but who would set the stage for lights-out closer Mariano Rivera: Joba Chamberlain or David Robertson? Tribe fans will remember Chamberlain; he's the pitcher who suffered "The Night of the Midges" here against the Tribe in 2007. He's not really recovered from that. And now, though Joe Girardi denied it, he's apparently lost the Yankees skipper's confidence in him to be the eighth-inning set-up guy, according to espnnewyork.com's Wallace Matthews.

Two hours before the first pitch of Monday night's New York Yankees-Cleveland Indians game at Progressive Field, a direct question was put to Yankees manager Joe Girardi: All things being equal -- meaning both guys are healthy, well-rested and ready to pitch -- who is your eighth-inning guy, Joba Chamberlain or David Robertson?

"I'd probably lean towards Joba right now," he said. "We'll look at matchups and how it equates to certain guys, but I'd probably lean towards Joba."

Approximately four hours later, in the eighth inning of a game in which the Yankees led by one run -- thanks to Curtis Granderson's third homer in two games -- but still needed to get six more outs, it was time for Girardi to make his biggest decision of the night.The Indians had a runner on first, no one out and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera -- a .280 hitter with all of one home run and seven RBIs -- coming up. Girardi was about to take the ball from Javier Vazquez, who had pitched seven fine innings, and hand it to whom?

Well, he might have been leaning toward Chamberlain before the first pitch was thrown, but now, with the game on the line, he called for Robertson.

"I looked at the charts and I looked at everything and I liked the matchup," he said. "So I thought I'd go to Robby there."

Never mind that the numbers actually said Chamberlain was the way to go -- that Cabrera was 0-for-5 lifetime against him with two strikeouts, but was an entirely unknown quantity against Robertson, never having faced him. Maybe along with the numbers and the charts and the matchups, Girardi read the tea leaves and the tarot cards. But something made him go with Robertson, and chances are it had very little to do with Cabrera, very little to do with Robertson and everything to do with Chamberlain.

. . . "I still have my job," Chamberlain said, sitting placidly in a folding chair after the game, either blissfully oblivious or willfully in denial. "I'm still ready to come out and help this team win. It doesn't matter what day it is or what the situation is. You gotta be ready from the sixth inning on for any situation that may happen."

Yeah, like when Luke made a remarkable recovery from the amnesia he got in the car crash on the way home from the hospital where he'd been recovering from near-fatal toe fungus came in and caught Laura kissing this other guy . . . oh, wait. That was the other soap opera with New York roots.

Never mind.

O-fer-A-Rod
Alex Rodriguez remains stuck at No. 599 in his bid to collect his 600th homer. And he says all the right thing (i.e. cliches) you'd expect to hear about the 17 at-bats (and counting) since his last dinger.

"I'd rather not hit a home run and win than hit a home run and lose," Rodriguez said (in a New York Daily News account).

"It was a great win for us."

It took 28 at-bats for Rodriguez to go from 499 to 500, so while his 17 at-bat stretch is his sixth-longest this season, he's still a few days away from reaching the length of his milestone trek from 2007. A-Rod has endured homerless skids of 34, 39, 46 and 59 at-bats this season, the longest coming during a 15-game stretch from April 21-May 8.

"I'm not really concerned about it," Rodriguez said. "It's going to come, whether it's this week, next week or next month. At some point, it will come. The important thing for me is to stay within the game."

Choo business
The waitingfornextyear.com blog about the game referenced one of the brightest spots for the Tribe this year: outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.

It is great to have Choo back in the lineup every night. He showed off a few of his five tools last night with his bat and with his glove. In the fifth, Choo fired an absolute bullet on a Granderson ball off the wall, nailing the speedster at second. The fact that he came over as a player to be named later for Ben Broussard still stuns me to this day. Choo seems to get better and better, while Broussard now plays the guitar.

Hey, WFNY, thanks for the reminder. Check out Broussard's home page to follow his musical career. And as a public service, we provide a youtube sample of the former Tribe utilityman's musical gift. You haven't really lived till you've heard and/or seen Broussard beat-boxing to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

 


From The Plain Dealer
Beat writer Paul Hoynes has seen more losses than a Jenny Craig counselor. The one last night, though, had to hurt. Jake Westbrook pitched a great game . . . right until Westy surrendered Curtis Granderson's two-run, game-winning homer.

And in his Indians Insider column, pleasantly illustrated by Dennis Manoloff's camera-phone picture of 'em, Hoynesie talked about the specially marked baseballs used only during A-Rod's at-bats as he pursues that elusive No. 600.

Also Bill Livingston opines on CC Sabathia's return to where it all started. A strong contender for the AL Cy Young Award, with a 13-3 mark, and a 3.18 ERA, Livy says it'll be easier for the Yankees' ace to return to his Progressive/Jacobs Field roots than it will for LeBron James to return to his. Being traded, as CC noted, tends not to make you the pariah that announcing your "Decision" to leave your hometown team on national television does.