One Night in The Arms Race

Talk about all the walk-offs you want, June 3, 2008 will go down as a pitcher's night.

In one evening, four significant pitching performances occurred to entertain us. If not, this would serve to entertain our thoughts as to the state of the pitching game in 2008.

How did tonight go down on the mound? Let's recap, shall we?

By Decree of Hank Steinbrenner...: The New York Yankees' Joba Chamberlain took the mound as a starting pitcher as The Boss' son planned. He last 2-1/3 innings, throwing 62 pitches with 32 of them as strikes. He struck out three batters, but not before a shaky first innings where he allowed Shannon Stewart of the Toronto Blue Jays to cross home. In all, the first start for Joba wasn't bad. The larger question still remains whether he was ready to start now as opposed to later in the season. The Steinbrenners may never know unless they allowed Joe Girardi to try.

A Couple of Happy Returns: Dontrelle Willis of the Detroit Tigers and Pedro Martinez of the New York Mets staged their latest comebacks tonight on the mound. Willis was out since April 11 due to a hyperextended right knee. Instead of finding some relief innings for the D-Train, manager Jim Leyland went for broke and made him the sixth starter tonight in Oakland. As for Pedro, it's been since April 1 since being sidelined with a strained hamstring. He makes his first start since that time in San Francisco with a nice start to boot. Pedro has always been stubborn when it came to his health. When Pedro knows he's OK, we should never second-guess it.

Look Who's Number Two?: Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks finally achieved immortality by moving into second place in career strikeouts. Mike Cameron of the Milwaukee Brewers became the 4,673rd victim of the Big Unit, giving the D-Back veteran one more than the maligned Roger Clemens. Johnson is only 1,041 shy of tying the all-time strikeout leader Nolan Ryan. Only? But, first, the Big Unit needs to win 12 more games to join the 300-win club. Just don't ask about retirement, OK?

Yep, He's OK: On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins' Nick Blackburn took a Bobby Abreu comebacker in the face. Today, he's reported to being OK. Blackburn still has some headaches and some swelling around the area of impact, but he's improving and feeling positive about his recovery. Blackburn expects to pitch against the Chicago White Sox this Friday, though I wonder if manager Ron Gardenhire might let him do so. You can be cautious, but if the guy's fitness is fine, he'll pitch. It's not like he's Pedro Martinez who declares himself fit while everyone around him disagrees...then pitches six good innings of work and tells everyone in the clubhouse "I told you so!" Hopefully, Nick will be back soon enough to pitch, but not flinch all the time as Mike Mussina revealed hours after Blackburn was carried off the field in the Metrodome.