Saturday, May 29th 2010, 11:53 PM  With one excruciating pitch after another taken for a ball by their hitters and every exasperating pitching change after another made by their manager, it was as if the Yankees were sending a "take this" text message Saturday up to Cowboy Joe West, who's umpiring the Red Sox-Royals series in Boston:  "Yo, Joe! You're missin' a great game here! You think we play long games with the Red Sox? You should see us against the Cleveland Indians!"  No doubt, West's umpire brethren, including C.B. Bucknor, who was behind the plate at the Stadium as Cleveland's pitchers issued four walks and hit another batter during a 29-minute, 55-pitch bottom of the fourth inning, and crew chief Dana DeMuth, who at one point was seen waving his arms in impatience as the bases kept filling up with Yankees, will attest to the torture of presiding over the deadly combination of incompetent pitching and patient hitting.  But it turned out this was merely a warm-up act for what would be one of the most mind-numbing games anyone will ever witness. Or, more precisely, endure. For, three innings later, holding what, on the surface, would have seemed to be a relatively safe 10-5 lead over one of the worst teams in baseball, Joe Girardi decided it was time to embark on what we have come to call "the constant search for the one guy who doesn't have it" and, in the course of three Yankee pitching changes, the Indians batted around to take a 12-10 lead.  Most of the Indian carnage was inflicted upon Joba Chamberlain, who came onto the scene only after Girardi blew through three pitchers earlier in the inning, beginning with David Robertson, who left with two runners aboard and one out after straining a muscle in his back. He was replaced by Sergio Mitre, who completed a four-pitch walk to Jhonny Peralta and was given the rest of the day off. Next out of the bullpen was Damaso Marte, who at least got his man - Russell Branyan - on a flyout to center.  That was the problem. We'll never know if the lefty Marte could've gotten one more out to get out of the inning. Girardi elected to go for the kill - which wound up killing him - and brought in Chamberlain with a slew of righthanded hitters coming up. Call it the right percentage move, if you will, but by the time Joba struck out Shin-Soo Choo to end what became a 38-minute half-inning, five straight Indians had reached base and seven runners had crossed the plate.  "It was a bad loss," understated Girardi said. "You're up 10-5 going into the seventh inning, you figure you've got a pretty good chance of winning and we didn't."
Joe Girardi was not about to say for the record that he's concerned about Joba Chamberlain, but he surely must be after the third bad outing in the last five appearances by the big righty.