Bronx, N.Y., April 18, 2010 — Five days ago, Andy Pettitte whipped Anaheim in the 2010 Stadium opener featuring a killer curve that netted him six strike outs in the first four innings. It was a different Pettitte who took the mound Sunday, mixing every pitch he had and searching for a few more to get the right combo against a game Texas team out to avoid a sweep.

As they had Tuesday, Andy’s mates gave him a first-inning 1-0 lead, with left fielder Brett Gardner, leading off in Derek Jeter’s place, crossing the plate on a Robinson Cano sac fly once he reached first on a hit by pitch. The Yankees pestered Texas righty Rich Harden, putting at least two runners on in all four of his frames. And it was a good thing too, because although Pettitte was able to negotiate around a single and a walk to get through two innings on five ground ball outs, the Rangers appeared to be onto him.

Yankee fans are used to seeing Pettitte allow baserunners and turn in gutty performances against opponents for years now, often coaxing the ground ball to escape trouble, but the Rangers appeared ready to put together a big inning in the third. Catcher Matt Treanor led off with a single to short left field and, following a sac bunt, Elvis Andrus tied the score with a double he snuck inside the third base line past Alex Rodriguez. Struggling to find it, Andy uncharacteristically fell behind 3-0, for the third of four times on the day, to Michael Young, and one pitch later the Texas third sacker delivered Andrus with a hard single to right. When Nick Swisher air-mailed a late throw home, Young scampered into second.

With Josh Hamilton, Vlad Guerrero, and Nelson Cruz lurking, Pettitte was in early trouble. We’ve seen him right himself in uglier innings, but when Hamilton drilled a 1-1 pitch over the first base bag things looked bad. The big lefty Texan needed some help and his first baseman, a Maryland boy with “Tex” for a nickname, came through, spearing the Texas center fielder’s missile with a lunging leap. His throw to double Young off second was late, but Mark Teixeira wasn’t ready to cast aside the hero’s cape just yet. He calmly settled under a popup from the Texas DH to close the top of the inning, then lofted a monster home run to the second deck in right leading off the bottom half.

Mark’s early offensive woes are well documented, and even the big game-tying bomb did little to improve his numbers on the board; a 1-for-4 won’t lift a low batting average too much. But he never lets the offensive struggles get him down. His arrival on the Yankee scene a year ago took a middling defensive team and turned it into a superb one, a huge factor in the club’s early surge to first place this season.

But the Yankee third was far from over. Harden almost pitched his way out, striking out Cano and Swisher around a Jorge Posada single sandwiched by walks to Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson to fill the bases with two down. The Texas righty got Ramiro Pena, in at short for Jeter on a rare off day due to a cold, to swing at his first two pitches. The Yankee backup missed the first one, but he singled hard down the first base line with the second, and the Yanks had a 4-2 lead.

Normally, this would have been Pettitte’s cue to settle down and right the ship. But already having thrown 51 pitches through three, he issued a five-pitch walk to first baseman Ryan Garko with one down in the fourth. Then Alex Rodriguez made a nice play on a foul pop, calling Posada off on a ball twisting in the breeze 30-40 feet down the third base line for out number two. Having already started the first Rangers rally, Treanor made a bid with a hard grounder into the hole between first and second, but it was Tex to the rescue again. Not only did he make a full body dive to his right to snare the hot shot, he leaped to his feet and beat the Texas catcher to the first base bag to close out the inning.

That last was enough for Pettitte, who came out for the fifth like a new man. Pushed to 65 pitches to retire the first 12 Rangers batters, he retired 10 straight on his next 28. All four of his strike outs came in innings five through eight. He struck out David Murphy in the seventh on just the third swing and miss by a Texas batter all day, then brought both his “K” and missed swings count to four against Young in the eighth.

Posada, who has to be given some credit for some of the great starts the pitchers have been turning in, is swinging a hot bat too, and he forged the game’s final 5-2 score with a line shot into the right field seats in the seventh. Mariano Rivera came on for the save, turning it in in style with a fly ball and two strike outs, and the game finished up one minute before 4:00 pm.

One of several recording sessions the Beatles used 45 years ago to record Help! took place on April 13, five calendar days ago. Although everyone on the field and in the stands knew Andy Pettitte had it in him to turn his game around, I’m sure the crafty southpaw would admit,

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.

We’re all glad Mark was there to answer the door on a day when the Texan and Tex beat Texas.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!