Yankees' Pettitte a master of the tuneout on the mound on the road
Print- •
-
Share
- Share this item
-
Grab the link
Copy and paste the link:
- Blog about it
- Close
- •
-
Post a Comment
- •
Favorite- •
PHOTOS () —
By Pete Caldera
The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
(MCT)
PHILADELPHIA — Andy Pettitte walks by, and CC Sabathia can't let him pass without another reminder.
This is Pettitte's eighth World Series, a fact that plainly staggers Sabathia — who is experiencing his first Fall Classic. "I say that to him all the time," Sabathia said. "Eight? Man, it's unbelievable."
Pettitte just smiles and nods in agreement. "It is unbelievable," he said. "A lot of guys are asking me, 'How many is this?'" and stuff like that.
"I don't even know what to say about it just that I feel very fortunate."
After Saturday night's Game 3 start against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, only Whitey Ford will have started more World Series games for the Yankees than Pettitte, who is tied with Waite Hoyt and Red Ruffing with 10 apiece.
Ford's 22 Series starts remains the gold standard, andthis is the time of year when Pettitte — at age 37 — is undecided about whether he'll return to pitch next season. So, there's always a chance this could be Pettitte's final start.
But none of that sentimentality will interfere with Pettitte's task Saturday night, with the Series tied at a game apiece.
Pettitte was a 21-game winner and a free agent-to-be in 2003, when he went to the mound for Game 6 of the 2003 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Josh Beckett pitched a shutout against the Yanks, and the Marlins clinched the Series with a 2-0 victory.
Amid the intense pressure of an elimination game, Pettitte allowed just one earned run in seven innings that night. It was the last game he'd pitch for the Yanks until 2007, and it was the last World Series for the Yanks until now.
The lefty went home to Houston, and helped pitch the Astros to the 2005 pennant. His 16 career postseason wins is tops all time, and he's pitched the equivalent of a long year just in postseason 237 1/3 innings.
So far this October, Pettitte is 2-0 in three starts all of them 6 1/3 innings with a 2.37 ERA, and victories in the division series clincher at Minnesota and the pennant winner against the Angels on Sunday.
Saturday night marks Pettitte's third Game 3 start this postseason, all of them on the road. And this is a hitters' park, where the fans are on top of the action and in the ears of the opponent.
In other words, it's the perfect time for Pettitte.
"No matter how loud or hostile it is or whatever...I'm able to just tune everything out and just focus on one thing, and that's trying to make some pitches," Pettitte said. "I think some guys have a harder time doing that."
Already, the Yankees caught a taste of Philly venom as they arrived from Penn Station on Friday afternoon.
"We got booed, and yelled at everywhereeven coming off the train," Johnny Damon said with a smile.
Damon has absorbed the Fenway fans' worst after leaving the Red Sox, and Mark Teixeira caught tons of abuse in Boston a finalist for his services as a free agent and Baltimore, where the people near his hometown scorned the sight of him in a Yankee uniform.
And he knows about Philly's tough reputation.
"We play in Boston three times a year. I don't know if it can get any tougher than that," Teixeira said. "But I know they're going to try."
Inside that crazed atmosphere, against Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and the rest of the defending world champs, Pettitte will try to give the Yankees an edge in this Series perhaps his eighth and final one.
"This is what I felt like they brought me back over here to try to do," Pettitte said of going for his fifth World Series ring. "This is what I came back this year to try to help get accomplished."
___
(c) 2009, North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Visit The Record Online at http://www.northjersey.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
_____
PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):
"SERIES"
