What David Cone would give to be Andy Pettitte for just one day.
The embattled Cone, who will try to pick up just his second victory of the season today, has seen the Yankees pile up 50 runs in Pettitte’s last four starts. Even the embattled right-hander would have gotten a “W” with that much support.
“It would be real nice if we could put a 10-spot up for him,” Pettitte said. “But it hasn’t worked out that way.”
Those Yankee bats came through for Pettitte again at the Stadium, scoring at will against Oakland starter Kevin Appier. The Bombers pummelled Appier for 10 runs in just 32/3 innings on their way to a 12-1 win at the Stadium. The rest was left to Pettitte, who made it look easy in earning his 13th victory of the season.
Rather quietly, Pettitte is putting together another very effective season. No controversy, just good pitching. That’s how he likes it.
“I’m not as dominant as the other guys [in the rotation] can be,” Pettitte said. “I just pitch the way I know how and blend in. Just like I have the past six years.”
Which is fine with Joe Torre.
“He did some good things for us. One good thing was we didn’t have to use our bullpen,” Torre said of Pettitte’s eight-inning, one-run performance. “I’m glad we were able to do that.”
For more than one reason. When asked before the game about the momentum factor after the Yankees’ dramatic win over Oakland the night before, he said it only went as far as Pettitte let it go and remembered a game from his managing days in Atlanta.
Apparently Torre had used Bob Watson as a pinch-hitter and he hit a game-winning home run.
“It was a really emotional victory,” Torre said. “I think it was 1983. The next day, our starting pitcher, I don’t want to say who it was, gave up five runs in the first inning. Andy has to go out there and shut them down for [Tuesday night’s] game to mean anything.”
Despite surrendering a two-out double to Jason Giambi in the first, Pettitte delivered. The southpaw remained unscathed until Sal Fasano drilled a home run to lead off the eighth. He walked only one and struck out two in his 122-pitch performance, which was just enough for Torre.
“I was glad I didn’t have to make that decision to keep him out for the ninth,” Torre said. “If he was going for the shutout, it would have been tough.”
That would have been about the only tough thing the Yankees would have had to deal with last night. The offense decided the outcome early on.
“After they score five or six runs you feel pretty comfortable,” Pettitte said. “At that point, you kind of want them to just get it over with so you can get back out there. But this is the American League, they score runs. So you never know how many runs you might need.”
And although he has been fortunate lately, Pettitte knows it won’t last forever.
“You look at Rog [Clemens] and he’s given up one or two runs his last few starts and not gotten the win,” Pettitte said. “But that’s baseball. I had a few starts like that before the All-Star Break. I’ll take it when I can get it.”
Lately, that’s been pretty frequently.