MLB

Yankees pitcher Pettitte impresses Mets

TAMPA — Andy Pettitte has made a lot of hitters look foolish during his career, but Scott Hairston isn’t one of them.

The Mets’ outfielder has faced Pettitte a dozen times in his career, and although Hairston struck out three of them, he hit .333 with a pair of doubles, a homer and two RBIs.

Yesterday, Hairston got another shot at the recently unretired Yankees lefty and was impressed.

“He looked pretty sharp to me,” Hairston said after he popped out to shortstop during Pettitte’s scoreless inning in the Yankees’ 8-3 win over the Mets at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Hairston said Pettitte threw him a fastball and a slider, and he didn’t know he would be facing Pettitte until shortly before the at-bat.

“It was kind of unusual to see him come in to start the sixth inning of a game,” Hairston said. “You don’t expect that from a guy who has been around so long and done what he’s done. I heard guys talking about him getting in there the inning before, but until then, I had no idea.”

Like many others in New York, Hairston will be watching to see how Pettitte’s comeback goes.

“I’m sure everyone is curious to see how he does,” said Hairston, who faced Pettitte in 2004, 2007 and 2009.

“But he’s a veteran and the little I saw of him here, he still had the same control of his pitches,” Hairston said. “I’m sure he loves the game as much as anybody else. He’s clearly put in a lot of work to get to this point already.”