MLB

Yankees’ Pettitte gets ball in Game 1 tonight

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The Yankees obviously won’t have CC Sabathia, their anointed ace, to start Game 1 of their ALCS against the Tigers tonight in the Bronx.

So they’ll settle for Andy Pettitte. That’s like having to settle for the Pick-6 lottery if you can’t win PowerBall.

“I mean whoo, darn it, shucks. Hey, the guy knows how to pitch,” Derek Lowe said. “The guy could come back at 50, 55 years old and he knows how to pitch. It doesn’t matter the velocity. He understands.”

And so Pettitte, who has a record 19 postseason wins — including 18 with the Yankees — gets to face a Tigers team that has struggled horribly against left-handed pitching all season. He’ll face the Tigers for the first time since April 30, 2008, (6-2 loss) and he’s opening a playoff series for the first time since the 2005 when he worked the opener of the NLCS for Houston against St. Louis (5-3 loss). But this is what Pettitte came out of retirement to do.

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“Yeah, it is,” he said last night after the Yankees rid themselves of the Orioles, 3-1, in Game 5 of the ALDS. “I came back to hopefully help this club get into this position, to help this pitching staff, to help take some of the stress off the other starters, and hopefully be able to give us quality starts whenever I take the mound, and give us a chance to hopefully get deep in the games and give us a chance to win.

“So it’s nice to feel like I have been able to do that, whenever I have been able to be healthy and get out there. So excited about the opportunity to be in this series, obviously to move along,” Pettitte said.

And Pettitte, after Sabathia authored an absolute gem yesterday, hopes to follow with a similar effort, although there is no explicit pressure to do so.

“I couldn’t say that I feel any more pressure,” he said. “We have to have a team effort. We have to have our starters throwing the ball well, or we’re not going to win this series probably. I feel like I am able to simplify it to that extent. Definitely need to give us a good start and get the series off to a good first game, that’s for sure.”

When you talk about the Tigers, you talk mainly about Justin Verlander pitching and Miguel Cabrera hitting — unless you want to discuss closer Jose Valverde’s effect on the team blood pressure. The Triple Crown-winning Cabrera is protected by lefty Prince Fielder, giving Detroit the most potent 3-4 combo in baseball.

“He is just a great hitter,” Pettitte said of Cabrera.

But the Yankees feel equally confident in their starter.

“It’s one of those things you can’t teach,” said Yankees center fielder and ex-Tiger Curtis Granderson. “Experience is there, winning experience is there. Playoff experience is there.”

fred.kerber@nypost.com