You couldn’t categorize this as “must win,” but just say the Yankees avoided becoming Red with embarrassment today.
For that, they can mostly thank Andy Pettitte, who wasn’t about to let the lowly Reds celebrate their first road sweep of the season at the Yankees’ expense.
Pettitte seemed quite comfortable in the familiar role of stopper, dominating a third straight opponent in the Yankees’ 4-1 victory at the Stadium.
“Andy is back to being Andy,” manager Joe Girardi said after watching the left-hander fire six shutout innings, allowing the Yanks (41-35) to salvage a victory in the three-game series.
Pettitte (8-5) has not allowed a run in his last 19 innings, and has surrendered one run over his last three starts, all of which were victories. His resurgence – after a slump in May and early June – comes at a time the Yankees are wondering how they will compensate for Chien-Ming Wang’s loss to the disabled list for at least another 2 ½ months, if not the season.
“I feel like I’m supposed to be one of the guys at the front end of the rotation and [this] is what I should do,” said Pettitte, who has shaved nearly a full run from his ERA over his last three starts – it now stands at 4.04.
Ideally, the Yankees would have received another inning from Pettitte today, but any chance of that occurring was quashed by a downpour in the sixth inning. After a rain delay of 56 minutes, Pettitte was removed with a 1-0 lead.
Mariano Rivera recorded his 21st save in as many tries, working 1 1/3 scoreless innings after Kyle Farnsworth was removed in the eighth with a cut between the ring and pinkie finger on his right hand. Farnsworth had attempted to bare-hand a Brandon Phillips chopper and ultimately needed three stitches.
All other news was positive for the Yanks in winning for the 13th time in 18 games.
“We started out a little slow and now we’re playing some good baseball,” said Jason Giambi, who finished 3-for-3 with a two-run double. “Our starting pitching has really stepped up, our bullpen … the offense is really starting to come around.”
The Yankees’ shutout bid ended in the eighth, when Ken Griffey Jr., reached the front row of the right field seats against Farnsworth, a solo homer that pulled the Reds within 4-1. As Griffey rounded the bases, he received a warm ovation from the crowd and was congratulated on the outfield screen for 601 career home runs.
After the teams returned from the sixth-inning downpour, the Yankees scored three runs to seize control of the game. Giambi’s slicing two-run double to left against lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt was the big hit, before Jorge Posada smashed an RBI double to right center.
The Yankees broke a scoreless tie in the fifth, getting a sacrifice fly from Robinson Cano after Giambi’s leadoff single and Posada’s double against Johnny Cueto (5-8), who allowed one run over five innings – he, too, was removed following the rain delay.
Johnny Damon gave the Reds credit for holding the Yankees to six runs in the series, receiving strong starts from Edinson Volquez, Daryl Thompson and Cueto in the process.
“The guys they threw at us, they shut us down,” Damon said. “I don’t know how they’re so far back in [the NL Central].”
The Reds had their best shot against Pettitte in the fourth inning, loading the bases with one out before the lefty struck out Joey Votto and Jay Bruce in succession to end the threat.
“It would have been real disappointing to get swept by these guys,” Pettitte said. “So this was a good win for us today.”