Joba earns setup spot
OAKLAND, Calif. — When Joba Chamberlain didn’t beat out Phil Hughes for the No. 5 starter spot in spring training, many assumed Chamberlain automatically would return to being Mariano Rivera’s setup man.
Nevertheless, the only man with a vote wasn’t thinking that way.
“You have to earn everything in this game,” manager Joe Girardi said. “When you produce you continue to pitch.”
Fourteen games into the season Chamberlain has proven worthy of the valuable eighth-inning role.
“I think you can say that,” Girardi said before last night’s 3-1 win over the A’s when asked if Chamberlain was Rivera’s setup man.
If Girardi had any doubts about Chamberlain they were erased Tuesday night when he entered the game in the seventh inning got out of a bases-loaded jam with two outs. He then hurled a perfect eighth, notching two strikeouts.
Chamberlain was like a lot of other people when he didn’t win a spot in the rotation: he thought he was the eighth-inning arm.
“It was the first thing that came to my mind,” Chamberlain said. “I knew I had done it before but I knew I still had a lot to prove. I knew it wouldn’t be handed to me.”
In eight games this season Chamberlain has given up seven hits in 8 1/3 innings and fanned 10. Before allowing an inherited runner score last night he had stranded all seven runners he inherited.
Chamberlain was disappointed he didn’t claim the No. 5 starter role because he still harbors dreams of being a big-league starter. But when he performs like he did Tuesday night it’s easy to see why so many believe his best value to the club is out of the pen.
“It’s my natural habitat right now,” Chamberlain said of life in the bullpen. “I take it one day at a time. You have to embrace the role.”
In addition to earning the job, Chamberlain had to prove to Girardi that he was physically capable of doing it by pitching in back-to-back games and three games in four days. After bursting into the big leagues in 2007 and assuming the role, Chamberlain moved back and forth between the bullpen and rotation in 2008. Last year he was a starter during the regular season and a reliever in the postseason.
“The thing about Joba is that I didn’t want to push too fast,” Girardi said. “You have to see how a guy responds, how he physically feels. You have to be careful not to crown somebody before their time.”
Chamberlain was right in believing nothing was going to be handed to him. But now that he has earned the coveted job, it’s hard to believe he is going to let it slip through his hands.
