Joba Chamberlain Gets First Career Loss
Joba Chamberlain gets first career loss:
Joba Chamberlain’s career had been as close to perfect as possible over his first 26 games, but the hard-throwing phenom suffered his first big-league loss Thursday night, giving up the winning run in the ninth inning in the White Sox’s 7-6 victory.”
In the 8th inning Chamberlain looked unhittable. In the ninth he looked surprisingly mortal. There’s no doubt Chamberlain has electric stuff, and starters are generally considered more valuable than setup men or even closers.
But it will be interesting to see how Chamberlain does when/if he’s moved to the starting rotation. The consensus in Yankee Universe is that he’ll be dominant, and I wouldn’t bet against it. But there’s no guarantee he’ll be as successful in seven innings as he’s been in his (so far) typical one inning stints.
Another question is how Chamberlain will react to adversity. He’s dealt with almost no failure up to this point. What’s made Rivera and Papelbon successful is their ability to put failure behind them and not doubt their ability. That’s not as easy as it sounds.
