Mike Celizic

Seven outs is hardly a quality start, even by today’s diminished standards. But that’s how many the Yankees got out of Joba Chamberlain in his first major-league start, and it was enough.

Not enough to win the game — by the time the bullpen got done closing out the third inning, the score was tied at 2-2 — but enough to tell the Yankees the kid has what it takes to get major leaguers out — even when he can’t find the plate with two guides and a GPS.

There was a full house at Yankee Stadium to watch this kid who is carrying the hopes of the franchise on his shoulders, a kid who was dubbed a superstar by the fans from the first day he came up from the minors last year and blew major leaguers away. And when manager Joe Girardi came to take the ball out of his hand after he’d thrown his 62nd pitch and issued his fourth walk, most of the crowd stood and cheered.

This is not an honor accorded many pitchers who don’t get out of the third inning. But the fans knew that Chamberlain had been given about 65 pitches to work with in his first start after working out of the bullpen for the first two months of the season. They’d just seen him labor through a nervous first inning in which he gave up a run on a walk, a passed ball, a balk and a ground out, then loaded the bases on a single and two more walks before closing the inning out with a strikeout.

It was obvious he was nervous. Chamberlain has overpowering stuff and ridiculous control for a 22-year-old fireballer. He’d never walked three men in an inning in more than a year of professional ball. But it was what he did when he pitched himself into such trouble that the fans applauded. Lesser men would have crumbled during an inning like that. Most would have given up another run or two. But Chamberlain got the big strikeout when he needed it and held the Blue Jays to a single run.

That’s all the fans and his teammates needed to see. It was proof that the kid will be just fine once the nerves settle down, proof that the Yankees have the dominant starter they so desperately need.

When he came out of the game, his teammates and coaches came over to pat him on the back and tell him what a good job he’d done. He threw his glove on the bench in disgust and watched the rest of the inning before heading for the showers. And that was good, too. The kid cares.

Whether Chamberlain is going to be enough to get the Yankees back to the top of the AL East remains to be seen. It’s going to be a while before he’s pitching more than five innings, and with him out of the bullpen and into the starting rotation, there’s no telling how many leads will evaporate in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings are gone and Mariano time arrives.

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