Andy Throws Another Gem, Yanks Win 5-1

(AP Photo/Rob Carr)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	3	0		5	10	1
BAL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0		1	3	1

WP - Andy Pettitte (12-6)
LP - Jeremy Guthrie (9-13)
SV - Mariano Rivera (37)

Andy Pettitte continues his terrific second half with his best start of the year. In 8 innings he allowed a run on two hits, did not walk a batter, and struck out eight. The only run he allowed came on a solo homer by Melvin Mora in the bottom of the 8th. The win improved Pettitte's record to 12-6, and lowered his ERA to 4.02. But that's only half the story.

Pettitte had his best stuff of the year and was perfect through 6.2 innings until Jerry Hairston Jr., who had made a great play one inning earlier to save a hit, booting a routine grounder. It was a play that he would make 99 out of 100 times, but that one time couldn't have come at a worse time. The next batter was Nick Markakis, and on an 0-2 pitch he lined a base hit down the left field line to break up the no-hitter. Would he have gotten the perfecto if Hairston comes up with that ball? Who knows. But what I do know is that he would have thrown seven perfect with just six outs to go.

Hairston said this after the game: "I don't know how many big leaguers there are, 750 or 725 or whatever they are, nobody feels worse than me." And you could see on his face how upset he was. The best part of the whole thing was that every single member of the team, including Pettitte, came over to him, patted him on the back, and told him not to worry. According to Hairston, Pettitte also thanked him because he said he didn't want to throw nine innings anyway. I don't know if they're going to go all the way this year (they definitely have the talent), but this is a special bunch. These guys genuinely care about each other and are clearly the closest Yankee team we've seen in a long while. Still, as you can see below, Hairston has the "honor" of being the first Yankees to be goat of the game in a victory. Sorry Jerry.

Back to Andy; he's now 4-1 with a 2.56 ERA in 9 starts since the All-Star break. If I'm Girardi, I'm strongly considering using him as my number two start come playoff time.

Nick Swisher got the Yanks on the board with a solo homer in the top of the third, his 22nd of the year. Two innings later he made it 2-0 Yanks when he followed a Robinson Cano double with a double of his own.

The Yanks put the game away in the top of the eighth when they put up three more runs to increase their lead to 5-0. Derek Jeter led off with a double and then scored on a Johnny Damon RBI single. Mark Teixeira then singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Then, after Hideki Matsui flew out and Jorge Posada struck out, Cano drove in two with a double into the right field corner.

The one negative in tonight's game was the performance of Brian Bruney. He came in for the ninth and allowed a walk and a single, and could only record one out forcing Joe Girardi to call on Mariano Rivera for the save.

Unlike Bruney, Mariano had no problems recording the final two outs and picking up his 37th save to tie Brian Fuentes for the MLB lead. He needed just 8 pitches (6 strikes) to retire Nick Markakis and Nolan Reimold.

Boston was off tonight so the Yanks increased their lead to 6.5 games in the AL East, and the magic number is now down to 26.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Jeter, SS	4	1	1	0	1	0	3	.334
Damon, LF	5	1	1	1	0	1	3	.289
Teixeira, 1B	4	1	1	0	1	0	2	.283
Matsui, H, DH	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	.265
Posada, C	4	0	0	0	0	2	2	.278
Cano, 2B	4	1	2	2	0	0	1	.316
Swisher, RF	4	1	3	2	0	0	1	.248
Hairston, J, 3B	3	0	0	0	0	1	2	.259
Cabrera, Me, CF	4	0	2	0	0	0	4	.270
Totals	36	5	10	5	2	4	21
BATTING 2B: Cabrera, Me (23, Guthrie), Cano 2 (39, Guthrie, Hendrickson), Swisher (27, Guthrie), Jeter (25, Hendrickson). HR: Swisher (22, 3rd inning off Guthrie, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Jeter 2; Damon; Teixeira; Cano 4; Swisher 7; Cabrera, Me 3. RBI: Swisher 2 (70), Damon (74), Cano 2 (72). 2-out RBI: Cano 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Damon; Cabrera, Me 2; Swisher; Teixeira. GIDP: Matsui, H; Jeter. Team RISP: 3-for-14. Team LOB: 7. BASERUNNING SB: Cabrera, Me (8, 2nd base off Bass/Wieters). FIELDING E: Hairston, J (11, fielding).

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Pettitte (W, 12-6)	8.0	2	1	1	0	8	1	4.03
Bruney	0.1	1	0	0	1	0	0	4.30
Rivera, Ma (S, 37)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.81

Pitches-strikes: Pettitte 104-73, Bruney 12-7, Rivera, Ma 8-6.

ORIOLES STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Andy Pettitte (W, 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K)

HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Swisher (3-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, R)

GOAT OF THE GAME: Jerry Hairston Jr.

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees @ Orioles

Game Time: 7:05 p.m. TV/Radio: YES, WCBS

RHP A.J. Burnett (10-8, 4.10) vs. RHP David Hernandez (4-6, 4.24)