Andy Pettitte’s legs shook constantly as he sat at his locker before last night’s 5-1 Yankee win over the Rangers and talked about going on the disabled list for the second time in his career.
The lefty admitted “patience isn’t a strong suit” of his and was clearly antsy and crestfallen after Joe Torre decided to put Pettitte out of commission for a full 15 days.
Pettitte, who hoped to start Sunday despite a cranky left back muscle, said he protested the move respectfully, but, “it was the same old answer” from Torre: “Why take a chance?”
Torre later elaborated: “The biggest reason for making the decision – the thing that swayed me – was that it was already going to be nine days between his starts anyway.
“I would rather err on the side of caution than have him go out there and feel it in the fourth or fifth inning [Sunday] but stay out there because he had talked us into it. I thought this might take Andy off the hook and also give him those extra six days.”
To replace Pettitte on the roster, the Yanks called up long reliever Darrell Einertson, a 27-year-old right-handed sinkerballer, from Columbus. Torre said that the next open start – Sunday against Kansas City – could go to a reliever, possibly Allen Watson, Mike Stanton or Jason Grimsley.
Einertson will temporarily take the place of Ramiro Mendoza, who will rest up for his spot start tomorrow.
Pettitte initially strained his muscle – he describes it as the “lat” underneath his arm pit – diving out of the way of a broken bat in spring training March 18. At the time, he didn’t think anything of the discomfort.
“If I had, I would have shut it down right then,” said Pettitte, who had a stellar spring until that point. “I thought it was just out of alignment a little bit. I figured it needed adjustment.”
But Pettitte felt it again and again, most painfully during his only start of the season, a 7-5 loss in Seattle April 7.
If there hadn’t been complications, Pettitte would have made his regular start last night against good friend Kenny Rogers, but was then tentatively pushed to Sunday before that option, too, was eliminated yesterday.
“There was no way to know how it would have felt Sunday,” Pettitte said. “Who knows if I could have gone 100, 120 pitches?”