"Joba Chamberlain fired a tight slider that dove out of the strike zone and followed with a fastball over the outer edge. The Angels' Howie Kendrick fouled off both.

The pitches were good enough to put Kendrick on the defensive, but they weren't enough to put him away, and Chamberlain knew this was a problem. The Yankees reliever had been summoned to protect a one-run lead late Sunday afternoon, and with a runner already in scoring position and the count full, Kendrick waited for the payoff.

Which would it be? Another slider? Another fastball? Chamberlain had a different idea.

"I needed to be able to change his eye level, to have something that goes down, that starts in the middle of the plate," said Chamberlain, who whiffed Kendrick on a curveball.

A year ago, it was a pitch Kendrick wouldn't have had to worry about in a critical spot. As with most relievers, Chamberlain leaned on just two pitches, his fastball and his slider. But the strategy led to predictability, which is why he spoke to pitching coach Larry Rothschild about bringing back an old ally in his curveball.

"It's something that we worked on from the beginning of spring training," said Chamberlain, who has thrown his curve nearly twice as often as he did a year ago. "It's something that I felt I had a lot of confidence in."

More and more, Chamberlain is featuring the pitch in tight situations, and it has translated into a revival. Through his first 27 appearances, Chamberlain is 2-0 with a 2.83 ERA, and has spent most of that span filling the void left by the injured Rafael Soriano.

The emergence of the bullpen despite missing their $35 million set-up man has been among the highlights of a stretch in which the Yankees have steadied themselves. They face the Red Sox tonight with a one-game lead in the American League East."