Andy Pettitte missed a season? Really?
He looks like he hasn’t missed a beat.
After pitching eight scoreless innings against the Reds in his second start of the season on Friday, the 39-year-old followed it up last night with his second straight win, allowing two runs over seven innings in an 8-3 win over the Royals at Yankee Stadium.
Pettitte threw 98 pitches, 71 for strikes, while striking out eight and walking one, the final batter he faced, to open the eighth inning.
“It was a good night and I felt good,” said Pettitte, who is 2-1 with a 2.53 ERA. “I feel like I’m recovering well. I think the older you get, you gotta kind of maybe not do quite as much in between starts and that’s hard for me to do because I want to work.”
After Pettitte threw 115 pitches in his previous start, manager Joe Girardi was extremely pleased with how his former teammate looked after such a lengthy outing.
“To go out and do what he did, I think he actually pitched better than what the numbers will even tell you,” Girardi said. “I think his cutter, slider, whatever you wanna call it, has been tremendous this year. I really think it’s been as good as I’ve seen it.”
Making the 482nd start of his career, Pettitte faced Royals southpaw Will Smith, who was making his major league debut. He might as well have been facing DJ Jazzy Jeff.
While the rookie struggled against the suddenly potent Yankees offense, the veteran showed the poise acquired over 17 seasons, facing, and escaping, trouble twice.
With a 3-0 lead and runners on the corners in the third inning, Pettitte got Alex Gordon to ground into an inning-ending double play, turned by Mark Teixeira after a remarkable diving stop. In the next inning, up 5-1, Pettitte loaded the bases with two outs, but struck out Humberto Quintero to end the inning.
Although Pettitte allowed seven hits, five came on a variety of bloops and dribblers, with the Royals only able to score off a pair of solo home runs by Billy Butler and Mitch Maier, in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
“I felt like I was expected to do well,” Pettitte said of his return. “I know there was a lot of talk about my minor league starts, but to me, those are minor league starts. All along I felt like if I stayed healthy, I could get back to where I was when I left and I’m just thankful right now I’m getting real close to that.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com