(I could have gone with “Andy Feeling Dandy,” but then I would be forced to start writing for the NY Post).
From Marc Carig:
Loss to the Angels aside, the Yankees scored a major victory on Monday night when Andy Pettitte emerged from his start feeling good.
“Physically, everything was good,” the lefty said after pitching six solid innings. “Joe (Girardi) pulled me, he didn’t want me to push it. I felt things went well as far as me being healthy.”
Grumbling about being pulled after 91 pitches: Does that sound like somebody who’s still dealing with shoulder fatigue? For a team that will need Pettitte once the postseason rolls around, the news couldn’t have been better.
“The command was there after that and that is a great sign,” Girardi said.
As I noted yesterday, the Yankees need Pettitte to be healthy in the postseason to succeed. He is their only starter with positive postseason experience, and gives them an advantage over most #3 starters. Last night was a large step in the right direction.
Related posts:
We lost but Pettitte looked good especially when you take into account first inning rust for allowing the 2 early runs, as long as he goes 6 innings and 3 runs in every playoff game we should have a chance to win all his starts.
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Moshe Mandel Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Exactly. They do not need him to be perfect in the playoffs, last night was fine. Also, as you noted, he allowed 7 baserunners last night, but just 3 after the first inning. He pitched really well.
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The other Chris H Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I hear people on the internet saying we can’t win with Andy Pettitte as our 3rd starter but I really want to know who all these ace third pitchers there are because if Andy is the worst of them then there are some really talented 3rd pitchers in the AL. I mean who does Boston have? Buchholz? He has been good but he still amounts to basically a rookie when you consider how many starts career he has and I would take the experience of Andy over Buchholz in a do or die situation. People must not remember 2007’s stellar rotation
Moose
Lieber
Vazquez
Brown
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