"Bad News for the Yankees"

Not only a line from the classic move The Bad News Bears, last night was a horrible night for the New York Yankees and their fans. Joba Chamberlain was forced to leave the game during the fifth inning of last night's game against the Texas Rangers complaining of stiffness in his pitching shoulder. The last thing you want to hear about any young hard-throwing pitcher with #1 starter stuff are the words 'shoulder' and 'injury' anywhere close to one another. You don't even want them in the same area code. But that's what the Yankees are reporting today. Joba is going to miss at least one start - very bad news for a team that is already without its ace, Chien-Ming Wang (most likely for the rest of the season) its starting catcher, Jorge Posada (out for the season, and its starting left fielder, Hideki Matsui (may be back soon from a knee injury).

If the Yankees are without Joba for an extended period, they will have few options, none of which are very appealing: 1) bring Ian Kennedy back to the majors. Kennedy, who started in the rotation out of spring training but faltered miserably in April and May has been pitching great in triple A, but the Yankees don't believe he's ready to rejoin the rotation. Or at least they didn't as of Sunday. 2) Keep Darrell Rasner in the rotation. They had announced yesterday that Dan Giese, who pitched three scoreless innings against the Angels in Sunday's 14-9 win, would take Rasner's spot in the rotation and start on Friday against the Angels in Anaheim. Maybe they keep Rasner in the rotation and let Giese take Chamberlain's spot. Maybe they can ride it out with Rasner and Giese if (and that's a big if) and until Phil Hughes is ready to return. Hughes pitched three impressive scoreless innings last Tuesday in a rehab assignment for Single A Charleston, and then three and two thirds scoreless innings on Saturday. (*Note: Carl Pavano is not among the options). Hughes is now up to Triple A Scranton, but he is at least three starts away from rejoining the big leagues and his ERA was 9.00 before he was injured. 3) Comb the waiver wires for a pitcher. However it is unlikely the Yankees will be able to pick up a serviceable starter at this point. We think Yankees fans should be thankful this injury didn't occur a week ago before the trading deadline because it might have forced the Yankees to make a desperate trade to get another starter and perhaps given up too much young talent for a mediocre, expensive pitcher, such as Jarrod Washburn of Seattle. If they could have gotten Washburn for a low level prospect, that would have been one thing. But a Chamberlain injury last week could have allowed Seattle to ask for a lot more, and the Yankees may have been willing to give it.

Further bad news last night was the walk-off grand slam that newly acquired reliever Damaso Marte gave up in the bottom of the ninth as the Yankees lost 9-5 to Texas and lost a huge opportunity to gain a game on both Boston and Tampa Bay who lost their games to Kansas City and Cleveland, respectively. This was the second day in a row a Yankees reliever gave up a grand slam. Yesterday, it was Edwar Ramirez who become the first Yankees pitcher ever to get a win while pitching one inning or less and giving up four or more runs.