Andy dandy in postseason again

By JOEL SHERMAN
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/
October 26, 2009

Andy Pettitte was the lone figure on the field at Yankee Stadium early Saturday night. The lights were off and a strong rain was falling. Game 6 of the ALCS had been postponed about an hour earlier. Pettitte now had a huge workday ahead of him in 24 hours, but he ran, and ran on a doused warning track.

And that felt right: Pettitte working hard in October.

For now this can be said about Pettitte: When it comes to the postseason, no pitcher has ever started more games, won more often and won more clinching games. Sure Pettitte has benefited from pitching for superb teams and in an era with three rounds of playoffs. But it is one thing to have opportunity. Another to capitalize.

And, of course, one reason the Yankees have enjoyed all this success is because they have had Pettitte to pitch so often in the playoffs. There will be many lasting images of this time in Yankees history. One of the most enduring will be Pettitte, the cap pulled low on his forehead, his glove held high covering everything but his dark eyes.

Often at this time of year, this has looked like victory. It did again last night.

"He really is a big-game pitcher," Jorge Posada said. "He really is amazing."

Pettitte further galvanized his rep in ALCS Game 6. For he not only won, but he won when a loss would have been so debilitating, when a loss would have meant a win-or-go-home Game 7 tonight, when loss would have meant using CC Sabathia in the decisive contest and harming World Series chances even if the Yankees prevailed.

Pettitte kept Sabathia in line for Game 1 against the Phillies by limiting the Angels to one run in 6 1/3 innings in a 5-2 triumph that sent the Yankees to their 40th World Series. Pettitte is going to his eighth Series, seventh as a Yankee, and considering Philadelphia's lefty might, he projects as pretty darn vital again.

In a euphoric clubhouse roiled by champagne, beer, blaring music and hearty hugs, Hal Steinbrenner called Pettitte "the best investment I made all year long." And that was even with $423.5 million earmarked for Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixiera. At the end of a tough negotiation, Pettitte accepted a major pay cut, down to $5.5 million plus incentives. It felt like a dismissive afterthought.

"Everybody knows I wasn't really happy with the contract I took," Pettitte said. "But I wanted to take it to come back here to have a chance to do this."
So he did this: Won his 16th playoff game, eclipsing John Smoltz. Generated his fifth clinching win, topping Roger Clemens, Catfish Hunter and Dave Stewart. And he did it in style, producing his 14th postseason start in which he yielded one or no earned runs.

To prepare for this moment, Pettitte began running under the Tampa sun in February and continued in a late October deluge in New York because, he said, "I stick to my routine, I run before I start."

So he had the endurance when the biggest out of Game 6 was needed. Two outs, two runners in scoring position, Yankees up by two, 3-1 in the sixth.
Pettitte fell behind Kendry Morales 3-0. A walk and Joba Chamberlain would be in the game. A hit and the score would be tied. Pettitte told himself not to give in. He threw a fastball for a strike, and then a hard sinker. Morales smacked the ball back toward the mound. In a goalie reflex, Pettitte swatted the ball down with his glove, retrieved, threw to first. Crisis averted, lead preserved.

"That is what we expect of Andy, especially in games like this," pitching coach Dave Eiland said.

And the Yankees got it, again. Pettitte left with one out in the seventh to a standing roar from the largest crowd ever at the new Stadium, 50,173. A cheer for today, but also for all the previous October heavy lifting.

"I didn't want to put it on CC," Pettitte said. "I didn't want him to have to pitch a Game 7."

There is no Game 7. Cap low, glove high: It looked like October victory in The Bronx again.

joel.sherman@nypost.com

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