With Sense of Urgency, Pettitte Cuts His Losses By TYLER KEPNER Published: August 20, 2008 TORONTO — When the Yankees stormed into the playoff race last summer, it seemed they could always count on Andy Pettitte. He won all six of his starts in August by reeling off his usual string of steely performances. This season has been different, of course, for Pettitte and the Yankees. Before Wednesday night’s start at the Rogers Centre, the Yankees had lost each of Pettitte’s last four outings. He had pitched well at times, but not well enough. “I’m hard on myself,” Pettitte said. “I don’t really come away from seven-plus innings and three runs saying, ‘Way to go.’ It’s a loss. But yet, you still want to build on it. You realize you’re throwing the ball decent.” Pettitte went from decent to excellent this time, throttling the Toronto Blue Jays for seven innings of a 5-1 victory. He allowed five singles and no other base runners, and Derek Jeter helped with three hits, including a two-run homer. Pettitte improved to 13-9, and Jeter, with 16 hits in his last 26 at-bats, raised his average to .298. It has not been that high since the series in May when Baltimore’s Daniel Cabrera hit him on the hand with a pitch. “They know what it takes, and they’ve been there, and they understand what we have to do,” Manager Joe Girardi said, referring to Pettitte and Jeter. “ Those are two of the leaders in here. Leaders have to step up, and that’s what they’re doing.” The victory was Pettitte’s first since July 26, the last game in the Yankees ’ eight-game winning streak after the All-Star break. Since then, they are 9-14, 10 games behind Tampa Bay in the American League East and five and a half behind Boston for the wild card. If the Yankees had lost, they would have been tied with the Blue Jays for third place in the division. They were facing a starter they needed to beat, and they handled him with ease. The Toronto rookie David Purcey, a former Yankees draft pick with a 6.55 earned run average, lasted four innings and allowed five runs. His start was sandwiched between two aces, A. J. Burnett and Roy Halladay. Burnett humbled the Yankees on Tuesday, and Halladay usually does the same thing. “You know what you get when you’re facing Halladay,” Girardi acknowledged after the game. “You’re getting one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. ” From the beginning, the Yankees played with urgency. At least, that was how it looked against Purcey, whose poor fastball command kept him from showing off his slider. He gave up singles to the first three hitters he faced, loading the bases. After a shallow fly to right by Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi drove in Johnny Damon with a sacrifice to deep center. Xavier Nady followed with a single to right to make the score 2-0. The way Pettitte pitched, that was a comfortable lead. He retired 13 of the first 14 hitters, attacking the lower half of the strike zone and working quickly. “You don’t let the hitter think, that’s the main thing,” José Molina said. “Me as a catcher, you don’t let the pitcher think. A lot of things happen when pitchers think.” Pettitte said he wanted to stay aggressive. He had issued a season-high four walks in his last start, against Kansas City, and two turned into runs. For this game, Pettitte gave himself more credit. “Some guys I don’t need to be walking,” Pettitte said, and the weak-hitting Blue Jays met that description. Toronto bunched three singles in the sixth inning, scoring a run with one out. But Pettitte recovered to strike out Vernon Wells, jamming him with an inside fastball, and a lazy fly to left ended the threat. Pettitte raised his arms as the ball settled into Nady’s glove — more out of relief, it seemed, than showmanship. The second half has been frustrating for Pettitte, who had gone four second-half starts without a win for the first time since 2001. That season turned out well enough for Pettitte, who helped guide the Yankees to another pennant. When they lost the World Series to Arizona, it was considered a failure. The expectations are different now, as the Yankees scramble to simply make the rest of their games relevant. They need more efforts like this to meet that goal, and Pettitte has not lost faith. “We were able to do it last year, and there’s no reason we can’t do it again,” he said. “The teams that are ahead of us, we have to play still. I really believe we can pull this thing off.” INSIDE PITCH Carl Pavano threw in the bullpen for Class AA Trenton on Wednesday and is in line to start for the Yankees on Saturday. Phil Hughes, another candidate, is listed as the Friday night starter for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees have not confirmed their Saturday starter, but General Manager Brian Cashman said, “Both players are fine and in line with their next start.” ... Derek Jeter’s homer was his 203rd, passing Bill Dickey and tying Roger Maris for 11th place on the Yankees’ career list.... Mariano Rivera’s son MarIAno Jr. wore his father’s No. 42 and served as the Yankees’ bat boy. News source：http://0rz.tw/564zT PS：文章有夠長，看的我眼睛都花了 --

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