Bronx, N.Y., August 26, 2009 — Yankee veteran southpaw Andy Pettitte outdueled his much younger lefthanded counterpart, Derek Holland, Wednesday night in a 9-2 win over Texas in Yankee Stadium. Despite the fact that the Yanks jumped in front in this one early, the contest was in doubt much of the game, particularly given the 10-run comeback the Rangers had put up following an early Yankee lead on Tuesday.
In retrospect, the wily Pettitte’s gameplan was simple: Keep the ball down, mix his pitches, throw strikes, and don’t let the righthanded bats beat him. And he followed it to a “tee.” How down? How about three oufield fly balls in seven innings, just one of them caught (with the other two driving in each Texas run)? Nine ground-ball outs were peppered with three double plays, two erasing leadoff baseruuners, and the other quashing a Texas bases-loaded, one-out threat in the first. Pettitte’s pitching palette was multi-hued: 90-mph heat, cutters, curve balls, sliders, changes of pace. The Rangers hitters were guessing, swinging and missing awkwardly for seven big strike outs.
As for throwing strikes, the fact that Andy only managed a 60/40 strikes-to-balls ratio tells just part of the story. He only threw five first-pitch strikes to the first nine Rangers hitters, yes, but how about 14 of 16 through their next two times through the order? The last part the Yankee portsider almost carried too far: If only Texas Manager Ron Washington could have been coaxed to start a fully righthanded lineup, Pettitte may have flirted with a shutout and a no-no. All five hits, both runs, and both rbi’s against Andy through seven frames came from left-handed swingers.
The Yanks had the early lead due to a sudden onslaught in the second inning when they pounded Holland’s first nine pitches for three straight hits, the last a three-run bomb over the Stanley tool sign in deep left-center by Jorge Posada. Jerry Hairston stretched the Yankee lead to 4-0 with a solo blast to left in the fourth, but Holland was better than that sounds. He retired the Yanks in order in the first, fifth and sixth, giving his explosive offense the chance they needed to mount a comeback. And come back they did. Chris Davis was on first with one out after a fifth-inning leadoff single when David Murphy’s laser to the right-center field wall sent him scurrying three bases. Melky Cabrera’s relay to Robbie Cano gave the Yanks a chance, but Cano flubbed the glove-to-hand transfer in his haste, and Davis crossed with the first Rangers score.
Alex Rodriguez, whose first-pitch single had started the three-run home second, had a decent night in the field despite making an error on Michael Young’s grounder in the first. Not only did the Yankee third baseman waste no time in starting three double plays at third, he made a fine running catch and peg on a Taylor Teagarden roller in the seventh. Good thing too, because two pitches later Murphy lashed yet another drive to right center, this one landing in the Yankee pen, closing the gap to 4-2, but not the one-run bulge it could have been. It was fitting, by the way, that Rodriguez flashed some leather, because as a baserunner he was victimized by the game’s finest play, an eye-popping 6-2 peg that beat A-Rod home by 20 feet in the third inning. Alex was running from second after a walk and stolen base when Hideki Matsui stroked a two-out single, but rookie shortstop sensation Elvis Andrus tracked the seeing-eye bingle well into center field before snatching it, turning and making an accurate off-balance throw for an easy out. Also worthy of mention on defense this night was a long run and catch by Mark Teixeira of an Ian Kinsler foul pop in the fifth, and Pettitte’s do-or-die snatch of a vicious Nelson Cruz liner in the fourth.
Pettitte managed to finish the seventh, getting Andrus swinging to end both his night and the tight, anyone’s-game portion of the evening. Holland started the bottom half having retired seven straight, but Cano smacked a double inside the third-base bag and Jerry Hairston came to bat. Subbing for Johnny Damon in left field, Hairston had been a thorn in Holland’s side to this point. He had walked and homered in back-to-back six-pitch at bats, and was determined to move Cano to third. Holland did all he could to prevent it, mixing hard pitches around the outside corner of the plate Jerry could not keep fair with offspeed offerings in on his hands. At 2-2, Hairston proceeded to foul off seven of the next eight pitches before finally settling for a 13-pitch walk. The free pass ended Holland’s night just short of 100 pitches, with the Yankee left fielder having cost him 25 of them.
From a Texas perspective, the game headed quickly south. Melky Cabrera bunted Jason Jenning’s first pitch deftly for a sacrifice, but reached when the veteran righty could not pick up the ball, for an error (originally ruled a single). Yankee Captain Derek Jeter was an uncharacteristic 0-for-3 so far, but he promptly singled over short for two. Nick Swisher rattled a liner off the right-center field wall for a one-run double, and Teixeira followed with a two-run single into the right field corner for the 9-2 final score. A wild Brian Bruney loaded the bases in the eighth, but A-Rod ended it with a 5-4-3, and southpaw Phil Coke closed out the game, retiring two of the lefty bats Pettitte had trouble with.
Incidentally, Posada had to leave this one in the eighth when Cruz fouled a ball off his already sore left ring finger; Jorge is listed as day-to-day. His three-run second-inning blast won this one, really, 49 years after another Yankee catcher, an obscure guy by the name of Yogi Berra, beat the Indians in the first of two, 7-6, with two long balls, on August 26, 1960. And 9-2 was the score by which Carl Mays and the Yanks, one year ahead of their first-ever crown, walloped Rasty Wright and the St. Louis Browns on this day in 1922.
Mays and Wright both threw from the right side back then, 87 years ago, one year before the Yankees would move across the Harlem River and move into a new Baseball Cathedral. Pitching and hitting from the left side would prove a premium in the “House That Ruth Built.” And with Pettitte showing no signs of the late-summer fade from 2008, the Yanks are marching toward a date with the 2009 postseason. They are doing so with two top-flight lefty starters, playing in a brand-new Palace that favors the port side, just like the Cathedral did.
It’s time to free up your October calendars, friends.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!