Andy Pettitte’s legs shook constantly as he sat at his locker 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. Pettitte will be eligible to pitch again April 23 in Toronto since the injury is retroactive to April 8.
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?”
Pettitte says he hasn’t felt a thing in his back since the Seattle game and says the injury only acts up in game situations after about 60, 70 or 80 “intense” pitches. In Seattle, it was “aggravating me a little more than it had been.
“At the time, Mel [Stottlemyre] and I thought that since it was just kicking up, maybe I could pitch through it,” he said. “But it just got worse.”
An MRI Wednesday confirmed a strain and Pettitte won’t pick up a ball until Sunday, when he will try to throw a normal off-day workout. He plans to long-toss the days after that. Until then, he will have heat and ultrasound treatment.
“Any time you can avoid the word ‘DL’ you try and do it,” Pettitte said, “but I understand that if I can’t pitch like the way I was in spring training, I need to get it right. It’s just frustrating because I couldn’t be more ready to get out there. Now it’ll be the end of the first month before I’ll get my second start.”
Of course, the good news is there’s a giddy kid on the other side of the clubhouse. Einertson thoroughly impressed the Yanks in spring training with his hard sinker and his unflappable “presence,” according to Torre.
In two games and 3″ innings with the Clippers, he was 1-0 with 0.00 ERA. In spring training, he went 1-1 with a 5.14 ERA. He was the last player cut from the big squad just before the Yanks opened in Anaheim.
“I was totally surprised,” Einertson said of the callup. He said his manager at Triple-A Columbus yanked him out of the shower and told he was being sent down to Double-A Norwich, but, luckily, “they were just messing with me.”
Einertson is half Chippewa Indian. His mother is full-blooded and his parents live on the tribe’s reservation in Wisconsin. He was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, but his parents moved back to be with family when Einertson turned 19.
He goes back occasionally to visit and shyly admits he’s somewhat of a celebrity because he’s the first baseball player to ever play professionally – much less in the big leagues.
“They’re all pretty much Yankee fans now,” he said with a smile.