The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins by a score of 7-6. Andy Pettitte got the win and Phil Coke got the save. How about that Mark Teixeira? I guess it really isn’t April anymore, huh? I think he might be hotter than Justin Morneau right now. Two home runs, from both sides? Wow. The greatest thing for Tex is that A-Rod is back. Since A-Rod is back, Mark is 12-36 with a .333 average, four home runs and 12 RBI. Now that’s protection. Before A-Rod was protecting him, Mark was seeing a lot of slow curveballs and off speed pitches but now he’s seeing more fastballs. Mark saw a lot of walks when A-Rod was out and when Mark gets up to bat now, pitchers are aware that Rodriguez is on deck. The pitches are more towards the middle of the plate for Mark and he’s putting some great swings on them. Mark got both arms extended on both of his home runs and that’s how he generates his power. He has a strong lower half and he drove through the ball. Andy 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 and had great, great control. Maybe a little too great. His Slider had a 7-9″ break and his Curveball had a 12-13″ break. He didn’t throw his change up much in this game but he did throw it and when he did, it was effective. It was a good sign he was able to throw his change up to right-handed batters. The problem with Pettitte is that he was too sharp and this is why he gave up four earned runs. He threw a lot of strikes and was around the plate a lot. He had a great ratio of strikes to balls. Out of his first 100 pitches, 70 of them were for strikes. Pettitte didn’t have a 1,2,3 inning all game even though he was ahead of the batters for most of the time. The home run he threw to Cuddyer was a high slider right out over the middle of the plate. What Pettitte should of done was make the batters move their feet, move them off the plate and set up his pitches when he did get ahead. He was around the plate too much and he was a strike throwing machine. Minnesota was too comfortable when they were up at bat. He battled the entire game but he got the win because of his mental toughness. The defense behind Pettitte was outstanding. Since Pettitte is a contact pitcher, the infield had a lot of balls hit towards them. Teixeira was his usual sharp self at first base, Cano made a couple of good plays, Jeter made a good play and Pena made an excellent play at third. In the ninth inning, Phil Coke rushed a little bit probably because of adrenaline but he earned his first save of his career. Player of the Game: Mark Teixeira. Mark went boom, twice, from both sides of the plate. Easy call here.
