Bygones, the Yankees insisted yesterday, are bygones.
Perhaps not as long gone as the ball Reid Brignac hit off A.J. Burnett Saturday that caused him to high-five a clubhouse door, causing wounds that are being more easily forgiven by the Yankees than Kevin Brown’s act of masochism six seasons ago.
In addition to not being a pie-in-the-face kind of guy, Brown didn’t wind up in a cast. More importantly, Burnett insisted yesterday he would not miss Friday’s start. Thus, with the exception of a 4.99 ERA that actually flatters Burnett’s body of work, all apparently was well that ended well until it became apparent during a 2-1 pitch in the third inning yesterday to Kelly Shoppach that Andy Pettitte was not well at all.
MCCARVER RIPS YANKS OVER TORRE
“I landed awkward and felt a little burning sensation,” Pettitte said. “I threw the warm-up pitch and as I tried to bring my left leg over it didn’t feel good at all. I think I can pitch through anything. But I was hurt, hurt pretty bad.”
As a grade one left groin strain sends Pettitte to the disabled list for a Brian Cashman-estimated 4-5 weeks, one of the game’s great gamers needed to offer no apologies, unlike Burnett, whose regrets were accepted by teammates yesterday, not that they had much choice.
Meanwhile, any expression of remorse by Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik for taking a better offer from Texas after having agreed to trade to the Yankees Cliff Lee remains lost in the mail, and Cashman will excuse himself back to the phone.
Plan B, Sergio Mitre, comes off the DL this week and into the rotation Saturday in place of Pettitte. Certainly off last season’s work by Mitre, a team could do worse in a pinch. Having used only six starters this season (Mitre spelled Javy Vazquez and Pettitte for a start each), the Yankees can’t reasonably curse their misfortune, either.
Even George Steinbrenner, if he were alive today, wouldn’t be firing the training staff after a 9-5 smashing of David Price and the Rays, who left town three games out. The first-place Yankees aren’t really in a race with Tampa Bay, but with a wild-card pack tentatively headed by seven-games-back Boston, mitigating against Boss-like compulsions to hoard every good player in baseball.
But if the Yankees were willing to sacrifice a quality prospect like Jesus Montero to rent Lee for three months before buying him this winter, what will they consider a reasonable cost for Roy Oswalt, who is much better than Lopez, or Ted Lilly, who is far more consistent than Burnett?
Much depends upon how long Pettitte is out. But it will take time for a 38-year-old to heal. Meanwhile, the axiom about never having enough pitching remains unchallenged, so the question again is whether Cashman, who suffered burns rivaling those in Pettitte’s groin in dealing for Curtis Granderson, is willing to risk more prospects to ensure not only a trip to postseason, but success during it.
A doomsday scenario has Vazquez, with a poor, if short, postseason track record, pitching Game 3 and Burnett, thanks to the more compact postseason schedule this year, probably needed for a couple of Game 4s.
So Oswalt, expected not to miss a start after getting struck on the ankle yesterday, and Lilly are back on the radar if, except during the overnight hours when Cashman thought he had a deal for Lee, they ever had left.
An opportunity to repeat knocks, only slightly less insistently than Burnett knocked. Now the Yankees can’t risk not getting another starter.
jay.greenberg@nypost.com