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MINNEAPOLIS — What more could the Yankees have asked for than this: Andy Pettitte coming off the DL as Andy Pettitte.
Even at his youthful best, Pettitte was never dominant. His genius was as an escape artist, embracing danger and having the weapons — mental and physical — to pull himself up from the cliff’s edge.
Pettitte never overwhelmed, always giving up a fair amount of hits. But he limited extra-base hits and walks. Kept running games in check with a devilishly deceptive pickoff move. So opponents, in general, were going to have to beat him one single at a time, when his best tool was a knack for executing in a crisis.
If anything, as he has aged, he has found greater serenity and success in the fire. Pettitte has counteracted some lost velocity by becoming more cerebral, developing a greater understanding of the hitter’s psyche. He is akin to an akido master, using the baseball version of the martial art to redirect the aggression of his attacker. In this case, he turns a hitter against himself.
“He knows what guys are trying to do against him,” Joe Girardi said.
Armed with that information, Pettitte is better able to defuse what should be his pressure point — men on base. He reverses the polarity by understanding the hitters’ mindset, a craving to drive in runs. Pettitte refuses to give in, seducing the hitters to go after his pitch.
“I feel I am able to relax in these situations,” Pettitte said. “I don’t complicate things. I realize the middle of the plate is not good and the corners are good. I try to simplify with that.”
This is how you produce 346 double plays — the 14th most in history. It is how he generated two of them last night to gain four huge outs in what became a 6-3 Yankee triumph over the Twins.
Pettitte has delivered exactly what the Yankees hoped he would off of the disabled list. Not just 11 shutout innings and a 2-0 record. But sturdiness and steadiness amid a claustrophobic AL East race. The Yanks opened a 1 1/2-game lead on Baltimore — the first time in 22 days that the teams were not within one game of each other.
Essentially Pettitte is the antithesis of the Yankee offense — he lacks substantial power, but is indefatigable in the clutch. The Yankees lineup went 3-for-15 with men on base, but hit four homers. Nick Swisher clocked the first, a two-run shot to build a 3-0 lead in the first.
But then Minnesota got two on and one out in the bottom half. Pettitte was facing Josh Willingham, a 35-homer, 110-RBI, righty-hitting force. Lefty-swinging Justin Morneau was on deck. So though it meant loading the bases, Pettitte worked Willingham judiciously, saying, “It didn’t bother me to walk him one bit.”
This was a pitcher knowledgeable enough to know where his outs were, and confident enough that he could pitch on the road at this time of year with the tying runs so quickly on base. He moved to 2-2, sensed Morneau was expecting a breaking ball and darted a fastball for a called strike three before inducing an inning-ending force out from Ryan Doumit.
It took 23 pitches to finish the first on a night when his pitch limit was 90. But Pettitte took the exchange because he kept Minnesota scoreless.
“He’s a natural competitor,” Russell Martin said of Pettitte. “[To beat him in a big spot] you will have to out-compete him and I don’t know that anyone can do that.”
Pettitte used backdoor sliders to induce double plays in the third and fifth, and Curtis Granderson homered in the top of the fourth and threw out a runner at the plate in the bottom half.
Thus, in two starts off the DL, Pettitte has held Toronto and Minnesota to 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and one extra-base hit in 44 plate appearances. Again, this is the formula. You are going to have to figure out how to single to death a pitcher unflappable with men on base.
“He is in control and command out there,” Martin said. “He is going to make the hitters earn their money.”
In other words, Andy Pettitte is going to be exactly what the Yankees need at this heated, crucial moment — Andy Pettitte.
joel.sherman@nypost.com