Joba rolls over Rays

(Originally posted for Baseball Digest)

Joba Chamberlain pitched eight shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday night, leading the Yankees to a 6-2 victory.  With the win, the Yankees took the three-game series against the defending American League champions.

Chamberlain threw 101 pitches over his eight innings, striking out five and walking two.  He has won each of his three starts since the All-Star break to improve to 7-2 on the season.

The Yankees got on the board in the first inning when Mark Teixeira hit an RBI single to drive in Derek Jeter, who led off the game with a triple.  They’d score another run in the fourth on Robinson Cano’s RBI groundout.

Robinson Cano added a solo home run in the sixth to extend the Yankees’ lead to 3-0, and the Yankees would get another in the eighth on a Jorge Posada RBI single.

The 4-0 seemed to be enough with the way Chamberlain was pitching, but for good measure, Melky Cabrera and Mark Teixeira hit solo home runs in the top of the ninth.

That gave the Yankees much-needed breathing room, because Brian Bruney struggled mightily in the bottom of the ninth when he entered with a 6-0 lead.  Carl Crawford led off with a triple.  Evan Longoria followed that up with a two-run home run.  After a one-out double, manager Joe Girardi summoned Mariano Rivera, his trusted closer, to put out the fire.

The Yankees are back to 23 games over .500 and are now 3.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East after their loss against Oakland tonight.  The Yankees begin a four-game series in Chicago tomorrow night.