Team R H E
Yankees (17-17) 3 8 1
Indians (15-17) 5 6 0

W: R Perez (1-1), L: J Chamberlain (1-2), S: R Betancourt (3)

With the Yankees holding on to a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning, it looked like they were headed to their fourth straight win after a sweep of Seattle this past weekend. Not so fast. Joba Chamberlain entered the game in a situation that he’s succeeded in time and time again. On this night however, he couldn’t get it done.

It all began with a leadoff walk to Sizemore on six pitches. Jamey Carroll bunted Sizemore over to second, but Joba once again walked another Indian to put two on with one out. After getting Ryan Garko to fly out to right, Eric Wedge called upon David Dellucci - he of the nine career pinch-hit homers - to face Chaberlain with two on and two out. He turned on an inside fast ball and hit it out to right. 5-2 Indians just like that. Mo, you may sit down now.

Everyone was saying it was bound to happen seeing that Chamberlain had never given up a run at Yankee Stadium. Joe Girardi even mentioned that in the long run it would make him a better pitcher. That may be true, but this loss hurt really bad. The Yankees had a chance to climb two games over .500 for only the second time this season. Instead, they find themselves 4.5 games back of a surging Red Sox club that can do no wrong at the moment.

Joba knows better than to give up two walks in an inning. Sometimes you just don’t have your best stuff, I understand that. But he shook off Jose Molina’s signs in every at-bat and it cost him. Instead of attacking hitters, he tried to get them to chase his off-speed stuff and it cost him and the Yankees the game.

GAME NOTES

  • I thought Andy Pettitte pitched extremely well last night. He went 6.1 innings (104 pitches), walked one and struck out six. He continues to battle on the mound every time out and you can see the determination to pitch deep into games. If only the Yankees could score a few more runs.
  • Hideki Matsui was 3-3 with a walk and rasied his season average to .342. He’s doing a nice job in the cleanup role for the team while A-Rod is out. He also has a 15 game hitting streak going.

Tonight’s matchup:

Yankee Stadium |7:05 PM ET
Chien-Ming Wang, RHP (6-0, 3.00) vs. Cliff Lee, LHP (5-0, 0.96)