Notes: Chamberlain an apt student

Notes: Chamberlain an apt student

Rookie reliever seeking info, inspiration wherever he can

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Joe Torre summoned Joba Chamberlain for the ninth inning of Friday's game because the rookie right-hander needed a frame of work, not to satisfy the curiosities of the crowd in attendance.

But once the 21-year-old took the mound, the Yankees' bench seemed to join the chants of "JO-ba, JO-ba!" that have quickly become a trademark at home games. Certainly, Chamberlain's talent has demanded attention.

"What he brings to the table is exciting," Torre said. "He's someone that doesn't come down the pike on a regular basis. [For] his age, he seems to be mature. He really hasn't had to deal with a whole lot yet, but his makeup makes you think that he'll be able to do that.

"There's not much that you really don't like about him, for sure. He's good sized, he's aggressive, and I think people admire somebody who goes out there and says, 'Hey, I dare you.'"

Chamberlain turned in his sixth scoreless inning of work against the Tigers on Friday, surrendering a hit to Magglio Ordonez but otherwise holding Detroit down in the final frame of a 6-1 Yankees victory.

Chamberlain gave credit to the Yankees' infielders and especially catcher Jorge Posada for helping him settle in. In his first Yankee Stadium appearance on Monday, Chamberlain spoke of being too emotionally revved up as he jogged to the mound; Posada calmed his nerves with soothing words that day and repeated that message on Friday.

"He tells me to relax, slow the game down and understand that it doesn't go until you go," Chamberlain said. "I don't care how many times I hear it. You can still get a little [excited] running in and hearing the fans go crazy. It always helps when he comes out."

Chamberlain finished on a high note on Friday, striking out Ivan Rodriguez swinging on a low slider to end the game. The whiff was Chamberlain's ninth punchout in four Major League appearances.

"It was good," Chamberlain said. "I've just got to keep executing pitches. I had a good part of their lineup coming up and kind of had an idea going out of how I was going to approach those guys."

Notable in the inning was the first batter Chamberlain faced, former Yankee Gary Sheffield -- a power-on-power showcase, as Sheffield waved his bat in his furious, familiar stance and Chamberlain challenged him with a fastball. Sheffield just missed the pitch, flying out to left field.

"I made a good pitch to Sheff, and he just missed it," Chamberlain said. "You win some and you lose some, and I got that one. You've got to make sure next time you've got to be a little bit better. It was a learning experience, and it was good to face those guys."

Nicks and knacks: Derek Jeter is ailing somewhat, Torre said, though the captain isn't about to reveal much of what's bothering him.

While Jeter spends a fair amount of time in the trainers' room each day to prepare, a day off is in his near future. Entering play on Saturday, Jeter was hitting .323, but had just four hits in his last 21 at-bats.

"I think he's a little beat-up," Torre said. "He got hit in the leg the other day [against Baltimore], and that's been slowing him a little bit. We'll look to spell him here and give him a day off in the next couple of days."

Rocket fuel: In the hours leading up to Saturday's start, Roger Clemens took time out of his afternoon to whisk Chamberlain aside, conversing in the Yankees' clubhouse over a steaming beverage.

Chamberlain's locker at Yankee Stadium resides in rather select territory, the stall to the immediate left of Clemens', a designation that was certainly not made randomly.

Torre said he was not sure how much Chamberlain and Clemens were sharing information, but Saturday's impromptu pep talk appeared to be an indication of a budding relationship.

"I don't follow him around on a regular basis, but Roger is so open with what he knows and he certainly goes out of his way to help the young pitchers," Torre said. "I know he's done it with [Phil] Hughes, and I don't know how many times they've come together, but Joba isn't shy. He's not arrogant, either, but he's not shy."

Bombers bits: The Yankees have regained Mariano Rivera's services. The closer was available but not needed on Friday. ... The weight room facilities at Yankee Stadium, used by both clubs at differing times, are being sanitized after the Tigers' exit to avoid the spread of the team's flu virus. ... Clemens entered Saturday's start needing five strikeouts to reach 1,000 as a Yankee.

Coming up: The Yankees and Tigers complete their four-game weekend series on Sunday, sending right-hander Chien-Ming Wang (13-6, 4.09 ERA) to the mound opposite right-hander Jeremy Bonderman (10-5, 4.65). First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.

Four-run sixth gives Rocket the win

Four-run sixth gives Rocket the win

Clemens helps own cause with unusual double play in third

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- It was hatched on the back fields of a sunny complex in Tampa, Fla., some four years ago, a reaction play designed to catch opposing baserunners off guard. Even the Yankees wound up being caught by surprise.

Roger Clemens pitched six strong innings and flashed some trickery in pulling off a spiffy infield double play. Bobby Abreu and Jorge Posada also homered as the Yankees defeated the Tigers on Saturday, 5-2.

"It changed the whole game," Posada said. "It's just one of those things where you try to catch somebody off guard. We did."

Without a trigger from the dugout, the memorable play came together as a perfect storm in the third inning, with Cameron Maybin running for second base on a swinging strikeout of Marcus Thames.

Posada came up throwing, but Clemens lunged to his left and cut off the low throw, pinning Brandon Inge in a scramble between third base and home plate to record a most unusual double play.

As Clemens, who joined the Yankees in early June, would later kiddingly tell Posada: Spring Training is overrated.

"We worked on that in 2002 [and] 2003 on the back fields in Tampa," Clemens said. "And it paid off. I'm just fortunate. He threw a head-high ball and I was clearing, and I was able to grab it and make a good rundown."

The play was strange, but not completely unique. It was the first time such a putout -- catcher to pitcher -- had been recorded on a caught stealing since 1986, when the Cardinals' Vince Coleman was nabbed by the Giants' Juan Berenguer.

"We can put it in our playbook from now on," Torre said.

For Clemens, who earned his 353rd career win, it proved to be a microcosm of his ability to execute damage control. The right-hander scattered 10 hits while walking none and tying a season high with eight strikeouts, including his 1,000th whiff as a Yankee, which made him the 10th pitcher in franchise history to reach that mark.

With a four-run Yankees rally coming in the bottom of the inning, Clemens escaped a tight bases-loaded spot in the sixth after a hit off Alex Rodriguez's glove, a clean single to center and a hit-by-pitch. A tiring Clemens used his 108th pitch to pop up Curtis Granderson to shortstop, dodging the big inning.

"[With a] man at third base and less than two out, I don't remember anybody as good as him," Torre said. "For some reason, he always manages to do the high-wire act and escape. That comes down to keeping your composure when you need to."

After five innings of surviving on Posada's second-inning solo shot and little else, the Yankees' offense came alive against Detroit starter Chad Durbin. On the seventh pitch of a lengthy at-bat that included four foul balls, Abreu clubbed his 14th home run, a two-run shot that clanged off the left-field foul pole and ricocheted into the seats.

"[Abreu] basically fouled, fouled, fouled, and then [Durbin] threw some good fastballs and he was able to foul those off," Torre said. "I think that was a big key for him in that at-bat. You're lucky with that ball down the left-field line."

Robinson Cano and Andy Phillips tacked on run-scoring singles to left, extending the Yankees' lead and closing the book on Durbin's start. The right-hander was charged with four runs and six hits in five-plus innings, walking one and striking out one.

The timing of New York's rally put Clemens in position to earn his fifth victory of the season. He was touched most notably by the 20-year-old Maybin, who logged his first Major League hit in the third inning, then homered in the fifth off Clemens, a straightaway shot that bounced off the black seating area beyond the center-field wall.

"That's not bad, getting your first two hits and a home run off Roger Clemens," Torre said. "That's pretty impressive, you can tell people."

Ryan Raburn's fourth-inning sacrifice fly accounted for Detroit's other run. Entering with a three-run lead but receiving vociferous boos, Kyle Farnsworth turned jeers to cheers by firing his fourth consecutive scoreless effort, a 1-2-3 seventh inning that included two strikeouts.

Farnsworth's victims included former Yankee Gary Sheffield, who has received even more negative reaction than the beleaguered reliever during his return to the Bronx.

After falling out of favor for his eighth-inning role after extended struggles, Farnsworth appears to be working his way back into Torre's good graces. He said that the positive reaction was a welcome change of pace.

"It's good. I definitely want people to cheer for me," Farnsworth said. "It's not fun going out there and getting booed all the time, but you have to go with the good and bad, so I just want to go out there and keep doing what I'm capable of doing."

Luis Vizcaino pitched the eighth before handing the ball off to a rested Mariano Rivera for the ninth inning, securing his 20th save and shrugging off a blown save and a loss earlier in the week.

"I don't have to prove or show anybody," Rivera said. "I know what I can do, and that's the way it is."

Giambi, Pettitte take Yanks past Tigers

Giambi, Pettitte take Yanks past Tigers

First baseman enjoys first multi-homer game of the season

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Spending two months out of the Yankees' lineup could have jogged Jason Giambi's perspective a little bit. Then again, it was nothing he hadn't seen before.

On a night when Giambi slugged two home runs, including one of his trademark upper-deck variety, Andy Pettitte reassumed his position as the stalwart of the Yankees rotation. The left-hander pitched eight strong innings to lead New York past the Tigers on Friday, 6-1, keeping the Yankees a half-game behind Seattle in the American League Wild Card race and five games behind Boston in the AL East.

"It's like he's never missed a beat here," Giambi said. "When I played against him with the A's, he was that guy we knew was going to be tough, no matter how good or bad the Yankees were playing. Andy was always that guy, and he's stepped back in that role."

Pettitte (10-7) logged his sixth victory since the All-Star break and won his fourth consecutive start, keeping up his standing as one of the game's most reliable second-half pitchers.

Working economically, Pettitte limited the defending AL champions to five hits over eight innings of one-run ball and, with 104 pitches, likely could have pitched the ninth had rookie sensation Joba Chamberlain not needed the work more.

"I try to take extremely good care of myself," Pettitte said. "I try to train awfully hard in Spring Training before I get to the season starting and try to carry it throughout the year. I'd like to think that's the reason why."

"He's so solid," said Joe Torre, who with the win, his 2,041st as a manager, leaped Walter Alston into seventh place on the all-time list. "That's the only way to describe it. I watched this in 1996. The only thing I see different since he's been back is he doesn't mind being 'the guy' out there."

Detroit scored in unorthodox fashion off Pettitte in the third inning, using a bizarre Brandon Inge RBI double that featured a relay throw cut off by Andy Phillips and an unexecuted rundown play between second and third bases that ended with Inge sliding headfirst. With the slide, Inge avoided a tag from third baseman Alex Rodriguez and right fielder Bobby Abreu -- whose task it was to cover second base on such a play -- nowhere to be found.

That lapse aside, Pettitte otherwise stifled Detroit, striking out five while walking one to improve to 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA in the month of August. For his most recent resurgence, Pettitte credited small mechanical tweaks made before his previous start at Cleveland.

"It's something you can't even see on video," Pettitte said. "You've just got to feel it."

Giambi continued to celebrate his return from a left foot injury by posting his first multi-homer game of the season, clubbing a solo home run off Detroit starter Nate Robertson in the fourth inning and reaching reliever Aquilino Lopez for a right-field, upper-deck shot in the eighth, his 10th and 11th homers.

The first homer was part of a five-run attack against Robertson (7-10), who used 109 pitches to get through six innings and allowed 10 hits and two walks, though he struck out seven.

"When I played against him with the A's, he was that guy we knew was going to be tough ... Andy was always that guy, and he's stepped back in that role."

-- Jason Giambi, on Andy Pettitte's resurgence

Citing his freshness, Giambi seemed to be looking forward to further and similar contributions as the Yankees claw toward their possibility of postseason play.

"I'm excited about it," Giambi said. "Whatever Joe needs, I feel great. Hopefully it will bring a little fresh air, because I rested while I was hurt. This team's been grinding it out. I'll do whatever little things he needs."

Abreu and Rodriguez also had run-scoring hits for New York, while scuffling first baseman Phillips snapped out of a 3-for-16 skid by putting up a three-hit night, including a two-run double off Robertson in the sixth that opened a four-run comfort cushion.

Pumping his fist as he took off down the first-base line, Phillips watched his drive zip over a bad route taken by 20-year-old prospect Cameron Maybin, who was promoted from Double-A Erie earlier in the game and had an inauspicious debut in left field, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a rare play on which he was called out for running into a ball hit in front of the plate.

Similar turns of bad luck aren't foreign territory for Phillips, but Friday's success may signal change.

"It's been interesting, the last week and a half," Phillips said. "I've hit some balls well and right at people, and people have made good plays. That's baseball, and it's no fun to have to swallow it. You keep plugging away."

With Chamberlain, the fresh 21-year-old bullpen weapon, having spent the last three games idle, Torre dismissed any possibility of having Pettitte finish off his gem.

Chamberlain did not disappoint in his sixth Major League inning, entering to chants of his name and handling the heart of the Detroit lineup, getting Gary Sheffield -- a power-on-power matchup -- to fly out before allowing a hit to Magglio Ordonez.

"It looks like it pumps him up," Torre said of the fan reaction. "But when you talk to him and look in his eyes, you don't see that excited feeling. It's something more than a 21-year-old."

Chamberlain retired Guillen and struck out Ivan Rodriguez to secure the game, snapping the Yankees' three-game skid and securing New York's first victory over the Tigers since last year's AL Division Series.

"It's great," Chamberlain said. "You can't describe the feeling. There were a lot of people here going crazy. It makes you feel good, and you kind of use that energy to do the best [you can]."