The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 8-2. Starting for the Yankees was Andy Pettitte and he was solid. He got the win. He pitched six innings and gave up 2 runs, 1 earned. It was good to see the Yankees hit a lot of extra base hits. They had eight. The Yankees found themselves down again against pitcher Scott Richmond, 1-0 after the first inning but their offense came to life in the second inning. It wasn’t about the long ball. It was about the Yankees getting doubles, triples, singles and they kept the train moving by getting extra base hits. The Yankees were much better with runners in scoring position and they drove in a lot of them. They were 6-for-13. Only one hit was a home run and that was by Brett Gardner. They started hammering balls in the gap and when you hit it on the artificial turf in Toronto, the ball really picks up. The Yankees had good at bats and this gave them an opportunity to get the pitch they could drive. The Yankees manufactured runs and a good example was the fourth inning when they pushed one run across. They got a lead off double from Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher moved him over and then Johnny scored from a sac fly from Mark Teixeira. A-Rod didn’t get a hit but he walked three times and that helps keep innings going. For the Yankees to be successful, they have to chip away and get a run here and a run there and they did it tonight. In close games down the road, these are the type of runs the Yankees will need. It was a good team effort all around. Andy Pettitte got the outs he needed. He bent but he didn’t break. He had a great veteran mindset because he pitched around batters he had trouble with in the past. He knew he didn’t have his best stuff and he didn’t have great command in the first inning. If he got in a bad count, he would pitch around a batter and hope he would swing at his pitch. If he didn’t then he would go to the next batter. Pettitte was throwing all six of his pitches. He was throwing his 2-Seamer, 4-Seamer, Slider, Change Up, Cutter and Curveball throughout the game. His pitches were working much better as the game wore on. He had a good curveball with a 13″ break and he was throwing his 2-seamer away from batters. He threw a lot of 4-seam fastballs but mixed in all of his pitches very well. Almost all of his sliders were balls and they had a 12″ break on it. Pettitte had no control after the first inning but after that, it was basically lights out for the Blue Jays.
