Things Joba Chamberlain (8-6, 4.73) can do to establish a certain degree of comfort regarding his utility in the postseason:

1.) Nothing

Items #2 and #3 on the list also happen to be "nothing."

For the sake of chipping away at the magic number, I'd love to see him turn the Sox on their heads and magically mystify them with his slider that has seen more play than a viral youtube.com video. Acually, I think there are very few people in the free world who Joba hasn't pitched his slider to.

There's an equal amount of people who have been able to tee off on Jon Lester (14-7, 3.33).

Tonight, the Yankees host the Red Sox for their last regular season meeting. The Yanks maintain a 5.5 game lead on the Sox, but more significantly, their magic number of 5 means that a sweep clinches the AL East division. (And most significantly of all, they clinch in front of Boston. Small, but palpable vindication.)

The Yanks tend to work overtime for Joba in terms of run support, and I'm looking for a big game from Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira. The question of the hour: what's more intimidating and what's a tougher nut to crack? Jon Lester's paralyzing curve ball...or the Yankees' merciless line-up? My money's on the latter. Let's go, New York. Throw a vat of hydrochloric acid on their psyche.