BALTIMORE — As the Yankees’ manager, Joe Girardi tries to win every game while implementing the long-term vision of the front office. He studied industrial engineering at Northwestern, but he probably never attempted an experiment like this. Joba Chamberlain is pivotal to the Yankees’ present and future, and Girardi is training him for a starting job while using him out of the bullpen. The plan Wednesday called for Chamberlain to throw 55 pitches — somehow. “We told him the mind-set is to win the game,” Girardi said. “Don’t worry about working on anything in a situation like that. We’ll get the work in on the side.” After facing six batters in the seventh and the eighth innings, Chamberlain sprinted to the bullpen before the bottom of the ninth to finish his throwing. It was a save situation, so Mariano Rivera closed the Yankees’ 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Girardi thus made good on his promise to focus not strictly on developing Chamberlain for his next phase. The Yankees had lost their first two games here, but they won the third with their early-season formula — the starter to Chamberlain to Rivera Andy Pettitte allowed two runs in six and two-thirds innings. He helped himself by picking Brian Roberts off second base in the fifth inning, and allowed only one damaging hit, a two-run homer by Melvin Mora in the third. After Mora walked in the fifth, Girardi decided that Pettitte would not face him again. Mora came up with two outs and the bases empty in the seventh, and that was when Chamberlain entered Pettitte had thrown 96 pitches, and by then there was no way Chamberlain could reach 55 in the game. If Girardi had removed him much earlier, Pettitte might not have let go of the ball. “There would have been a fight out on the mound if he was going to give us four or five innings tonight,” Pettitte said of Chamberlain. “I wanted to give us seven or eight innings, and whatever they were going to do with him, they were going to have to figure out how to do that. We’re trying to win a ballgame.” Chamberlain allowed a single to Mora and then a walk before retiring his last four hitters, three on strikeouts. With Ian Kennedy on the disabled list, Chamberlain could take his turn in the rotation next week. Girardi said he planned to talk with General Manager Brian Cashman about whether Chamberlain is ready. “We’ll have to see where we’re at after a long discussion tomorrow,” Girardi said. It seems likely that Chamberlain will start because, Girardi said, the plan is for him to reach 70 or 75 pitches in his next outing. If Chamberlain averaged 15 pitches per inning, he could throw five innings and not exceed his limit. Chamberlain would not say if he wanted to join the rotation now, because he did not know how his body would respond. He said he would sleep as long as possible on Thursday and then run and do more work for his legs. In the bullpen on Wednesday, Chamberlain threw 14 pitches in one simulated inning, then rested, then threw a few warm-ups. He tossed 13 more pitches to reach 55. “I was worried at first, because the adrenaline was going to be different in the bullpen,” Chamberlain said. “But my adrenaline was still going from the game. I made sure my mechanics were good and I was pitching in the bullpen like I was in the game.” Still, while Chamberlain did not remember throwing any curveballs or changeups in the game, he worked on those in the bullpen. He also took some ribbing from his teammate Mike Mussina for his unusual workday. “He said not too many guys run out to the bullpen twice in one game,” Chamberlain said. “It was a little weird.” By the time Chamberlain relieved Pettitte, the Yankees had scored all the runs they needed. The resurgent Jason Giambi was 2 for 3 with a homer and two runs batted in. Through May 4, Giambi was hitting .150, the lowest batting average in the majors among qualifiers for the batting title. In his last 17 games, he has hit .382 with 6 homers, 13 R.B.I. and a .507 on-base percentage. “Even when I was struggling early, I know what the board said, but Kevin Long told me, ‘Hey, you’re not hitting like this; don’t read into that,’ ” Giambi said, referring to the Yankees’ hitting coach. “That was the biggest thing that he’s done, him and Joe Girardi and my teammates. They’re the ones who kept me really positive, going: ‘Hey, you can’t swing the bat any better. Just keep taking the same at-bats and things will turn around.’ ” Giambi’s only fundamental change has been to grow a bushy mustache. It might look more 1978 than 2008, but the way he is hitting, he has no choice. “Unfortunately,” Giambi said, “the ’stache has got to stay.” -- │远│ ███████◣ │登│ │眺│ █◣█ █◣██◣ │高│ │望│ ███ █████◣ │视│ │山 看│ █ ▇▇▇◣████◣ │水 真│ │山│ █ █◣██████ ▌◣ │水│ --

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