In the past few years, I thought Andy Pettitte might have been close to the end of the line as a top-tier pitcher (in fact, until this season he’s looked awfully average); however, last night at the Yard, he showed why he’s been a solid and dependable arm for the past decade as he threw 6 2/3 perfect innings against Baltimore, until an error and a Nick Markakis single ruined it.
New York defeated Baltimore, 5-1, but the defining moment of the game came when Jerry Hairston — in place of Alex Rodriguez — allowed a Adam Jones grounder get past him with two outs in the seventh inning. That moment spoiled a perfect for Pettitte, and the ever vocal New York fans — they were plenty in attendance from what I saw as I sat in section 55 with my little brother — let Hairston have it with boos and other stuff that cannot be mentioned in this blog. Nick Markakis followed up with a single that got past Hairston to spoil the no-hit bid. After Pettitte got gave up the hit, he got a standing ovation from the Yankee fans, and once the frame ended, he got another hearty applause.
Yankee fans followed each out intently on Monday night, and had good reason to. After the mid-point of the game, it sounded like Yankee Stadium South rather then Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It sucks to be outnumbered in your home stadium; moving on…
When all was said and done, Pettitte struck out eight and only gave up a run — a Melvin Mora solo homer in the eighth and his 6th — on two hits. It goes without saying the Orioles were completely dominated by Pettitte, and really had no chance to win on Monday as the New York veteran southpaw was that good. Mariano Rivera got his 37th save of the season as he stopped a potential Oriole rally by striking out Nolan Reimold to end the contest.
Jeremy Guthrie had a very solid outing, but took the loss to bring his record to 9-13. Honestly, Guthrie had no chance at winning considering the Baltimore offense was just so inept against New York on night. He went six innings and only gave up two runs.
New York got their first run in the third inning as Nick Swisher blasted his 22nd homer to center field off Guthrie. They took a 2-0 lead as Swisher plated in a run with a double. After Guthrie was taken out of the game in the seventh, reliever Mark Hendrickson came pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief, and got through his first frame unscatched; however, he got hit hard in his next frame as he allowed an RBI-single to Johnny Damon and a two-run double to Robinson Cano to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead.
The two teams will meet each other on Tuesday and Wednesday; however, they have a tough task ahead of them as they face A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia in succession.
