Its going to be an interesting night in New York baseball.

In the minds of New York Yankees fans, their entire season rides on tonight’s game.  That is, of course, completely ridiculous.  Welcome to New York.

Joba Chamberlain takes the mound tonight and all of New York will be looking for him to be the same electric pitcher he is coming out of the bullpen.  They expect 98 MPH fastballs all night long, they expect devastating sliders for seven innings.

However, none of the above is all that likely.

Chamberlain will likely pitch only four innings and should be in the 93-94 MPH range.  He will also have to throw at least four different pitches in order to be successful, which means he cannot rely on his fastball and slider all night or he’ll start getting hit.

Chamberlain also has never had to adjust to a major league lineup.  Someone in the lineup tonight is going to get a hit off of him, and it will be up to Chamberlain to learn and make adjustments on the fly, something he hasn’t done at all in his bullpen work in the Majors.

Tonight will certainly not be the night the Yankees season is saved, despite the hopes of fans all over New York.

Out in San Francisco, Pedro Martinez is on the hill for the Mets for the first time since April 1st.  Expectations are much lower because Martinez is now considered a luxury for the Mets rather than a necessity.  A good start by him will help the team’s confidence and bode well for the future, but it is not the end of the world if he’s a little rusty.   His injury was a leg injury, not an arm, so he should be fairly sharp.  He’ll never throw 92 MPH again, but he should re-gain the form he had last September which would be just fine for the Mets rotation now that Santana is in place.

Lots of high hopes for tonight in New York.  We will see what, if anything, comes to fruition.  I’ll try to keep an eye on this while I’m in the press box in Newark covering the Bears against the Bridgeport Bluefish.