Rainout Forces Pettitte To Throw BP Session

Chad Jennings is reporting that the fields down in Tampa are too wet to play, so the Yankees have decided to make Andy Pettitte get his work in by throwing a three-inning bullpen session. His next scheduled start is on the 17th.

Here's another update from Chad Jennings:

“I didn’t give up a hit in three innings,” Pettitte said. “Unfortunately, this is what we had to do. I got my normal warm-up in, and then I got all of my throws in. And I’m tired. That was the biggest thing, I just wanted to make sure I’m good and fatigued. Obviously I would have loved to have faced hitters, but the way the weather’s been, I just had to get my work in here today.”

Eiland forced Pettitte into various game situations, occasionally calling a foul ball instead of a strike three. When Pettitte finished with his 50 pitches, he was sweating. Maybe he wasn’t exhausted, but he’d certainly been working.

“You’re trying to challenge him,” Eiland said. “You’re also trying to get his pitch count up. You don’t want to just call balls and strikes, you want to make it kind of game-like. He may throw a pitch in a certain count that might get a swing, but I’m not going to give it to him. You have to make it a challenge. It can’t be a go-through-the-motions thing.”

I like the way Eiland ran this. It won't make too much of a difference down the road, but it's good to see that everyone is being challenged, even during BP sessions.