"The scariest opponent for the Yankees is not Tampa Bay, no matter what the standings say. It is not Boston, either, regardless of the hype surrounding this upcoming series at Fenway Park. No, the most feared foe is not on the schedule, choosing instead to appear wherever and whenever it wants — although it does tend to visit the geriatric wing of the clubhouse most often. The opponent is stiffness. It gets around. Mariano Rivera had it in his side. Jorge Posada had it in his neck last month and in his calf this week. Now Andy Pettitte has it in his pitching arm, an injury described as a "mild inflammation" after an MRI that will almost certainly lead to a missed start or more. This is the thing about stiffness: You can never be sure exactly what it means. Is it a natural sign of age, something you throw a bag of ice on and ignore? Or is it the precursor for a serious injury capable of derailing what looks like an inevitable march to 100-plus wins? Either way, Joe Girardi has to manage around stiffness like that 28th world title depends on it. Because it just might. "You don't want to see these nicks," the manager said yesterday after navigating through a 7-5 victory against the Double-A team posing as the Baltimore Orioles. "You have to deal with them. You have to pay attention to them. And you have to work around them." Look, nobody should sound the alarm with this team yet. Its starting rotation, if you take out Javier Vazquez (and what Yankees fan wouldn't?), is 14-1 with a 2.15 ERA. The 2-3-4 hitters have been mostly M.I.A. — even a 3-for-3 day could only lift Nick Johnson's batting average to .171. Despite all that, the Yankees are 19-8 and playing like their next meaningful game will occur in early October, when whatever sacrificial team from the AL Central shows up for the division series. It would be hard to imagine a much easier start to 2010. Still, the core of this team "has a lot of mileage," to quote Girardi, and Pettitte is "not 25 anymore." The overriding theme to the season will be how those veterans hold up, and what the manager does to protect them. He was willing to give this game to the Orioles Wednesday to do that. Girardi pulled Pettitte after the fifth inning and just 77 pitches, even though the left-hander wanted to stay in the game, and then stayed away from Rivera in the ninth, even with disaster looming. Rivera insisted he was ready to pitch despite that stiffness, but when Dave Robertson gave up back-to-back homers in the ninth, Girardi turned to Boone Logan — the 26th man on the 25-man roster — for the final two outs. When he failed, he turned to Alfredo Aceves for the final out. Girardi was right to protect Rivera, who should be rested and ready for the series in Boston. But the usually cautious manager made a mistake not doing the same with Pettitte and scratching him from this start." http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2010/05/the_yankees_scariest_foe_is_it.html
