I’m not so sure this Joba emergence is such a great thing. After all, it might jeopardize Steve’s 87 win prediction.

i give this win (on the offensive side) to Melky. a walk, two steals, and a sac fly tied the game.

Fat pitch or not, he had to hit it in order to drive in the run. In a different lifetime (2006), A-Rod might have tried to do too much with that slider and popped out. Gotta give the batter credit for taking a mistake pitch and doing something with it. We’ve watched enough baseball to know that hitters can still strike out on mistake pitches…

FWIW, I was in the car when A-Rod got the hit to drive in Jeter. And, on 880, Ms. Waldman – of all people – said that the pitch that A-Rod hit to drive in Jeter was a ‘fat slider that didn’t do much, right over the heart of home plate.’

Based on this, plus the fact that he had to steal a bag to get into scoring position, I would give Jeter much more credit for that winning run than Alex.

This is not meant to discredit Alex’s hot streak, or even his getting the hit yesterday. It’s just that I think – and you’re welcome to disagree – that run was more about Jeter than anyone else..sans maybe the pitcher who threw the ‘fat’ pitch to Rodriguez.

I think the praise I’ve seen for Joba about this outing is getting a little out of hand.
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Spin it however you like, Red Sox boy. At the end of the day, Joba’s getting better with each start and that’s all Yankee fans care about. If you don’t like Yankee coverage, go troll on a Sawx blog.

Steve – I would have to say that it’s the Joba, Jeter, and A-Rod show. After all, it was A-Rod’s single that brought DJ home. A-Rod’s been locked in this month and he’s got a lot to do with these seven wins.

I think the praise I’ve seen for Joba about this outing is getting a little out of hand. Yes, 9 Ks and 1 run is impressive. But he still threw 100 pitches and couldn’t complete 6 innings. That doesn’t help the already over-taxed (relative to the rest of the league) bullpen. He is still walking more batters than he should, and his line could have easily been different if the pathetic Padres hadn’t run themselves out of two scoring opportunities. Two guys cut down at the plate, not on great plays but routine outs, says more about the desperation of the opponent than Joba’s ability to work out of trouble.