JOBA’S SHOULDER BEARS WATCHING (RR)

Wait, wait…Danny Aiello’s boltonian nephew said that Joba was only taken out because Girardi was “treating this game like the seventh game of a World Series…to protect Mussina’s 20th win.”

For the second time inside of two months, Joba Chamberlain experienced discomfort in his valuable right shoulder Sunday at Fenway Park.

According to several people, Chamberlain said the shoulder was tight after exiting the first game of the doubleheader against the Red Sox when he walked Jason Bay and gave up a ground-rule double to Mark Kotsay in the eighth inning.

The same people said Chamberlain didn’t appear too concerned about it. However, Chamberlain is the face of the Yankees’ pitching future and the slightest physical problem with him is cause for concern. Especially with the Yankees targeting starting pitching as the No. 1 area they have to upgrade this winter.

...According to a scout who recently tracked Chamberlain, tightness could be why his velocity was down during the final two weeks of the season.

“He was throwing 91 mph and a lot of sliders,” the scout said of Chamberlain, whose fastball was clocked at 97-98 mph before he spent almost a month on the DL with rotator-cuff tendinitis.