Andy Pettitte’s command is still a bit lacking but he made it through to pull in his third quality start in a row. The homerun Melvin Mora hit was off a good pitch, not the meatballs he had been leaving up there for a few starts in late April.
Here’s his line for the night:
A. Pettitte (W, 5-5) 6.2 8 2 2 1 3 1
What I liked about this was the cutdown on walks, what I didn’t like was something the line itself doesn’t show: his 8:8 groundball:flyball ratio which is usually better than that. I consider this an effect of him being lucky last night but hey, I’ll take luck. If he is going to have a lot of 3K/1BB nights (and most of his starts will probably be similar) then it can’t stay that way, though.
Oh and wins are the worst stat in baseball but Andy Pettitte is now #5 on the Yankees all-times win list.
I didn’t like Mariano Rivera coming out for the 9th inning after pitching two the night before, but I am guessing this is partly because of the off day today. His velocity was sitting where it always sits, which is marvelous but I am a little nervous about what this kind of use will do to him in the long run. It would have made more sense to allow Joba Chamberlain to throw the rest of his pitches in a game situation instead of in the bullpen but this might have been a reaction to the LaTroy Hawkins Save Situation Experience from the previous night.
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With all the dumb things that happen in New York, at least we never have controversies about whether banning players is booed or not.
Paul DePodesta explains the reasoning behind acquiring Cha Seung Baek. It’s a good read–actually his whole blog is a good read.
Mariano Rivera called a meeting with Joe Girardi his fellow relievers before last night’s game.
Jason Giambi hit homeruns out of Camden Yards on two consecutive days. I guess he’s hitting pretty well lately.
