Yankees 9 – D-Rays 1
ST. PETERSBURG – Finally.
After watching their pitchers get spanked with alarming regularity following the All-Star break the Yankees witnessed a familiar sight yesterday at Tropicana Field.
That’s where Andy Pettitte dominated the lowly Devil Rays on the way to a 9-1 victory witnessed by 29,114.
If the Yankees’ pitching, which had surrendered 32 runs in the previous four games, returns to the level of excellence that Mel Stottlemyre fully expects, the hurlers can look to Pettitte as the arm that lifted them out of the abyss.
“I hope so, I know we have been struggling a little bit.” Pettitte said of his 7 1/3-inning stint in which he allowed one run, four hits and tied a career high with 12 strikeouts. “We haven’t been as consistent and the offense has had to score a lot of runs to help us out. Maybe this can get us going. I think we are definitely going to start pitching better. We have been scoring so many runs you maybe let your guard down a bit. We have a good stretch run in us here.”
Pettitte was supported by Robin Ventura’s first grand slam as a Yankee and the 16th of his career. Ventura’s 22nd homer -his third straight game with a bomb -came in the third off loser Tanyon Sturtze (1-11) after a month-long dinger drought and shattered a scoreless game.
The slam moved Ventura into a tie with Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Dave Kingman for sixth-place on the all-time list. Lou Gehrig’s 23 are the standard.
“Anytime you are mentioned in a category with Babe Ruth, it’s an honor,” Ventura said.
Jorge Posada added his 17th homer off Sturtze in the sixth.
Bernie Williams’ bat continued to smoke. He went 3-for-5 and drove in a run. In his last six games, Williams is raking at a .536 clip (15-for-28) and has driven in nine runs. Williams’ average of .323 leads the Yankees and is the highest it’s been all year.
Nick Johnson reached base during all five plate appearances for the second time in four games. He had two singles, walked twice and was drilled on the right arm.
The win was the Yankees’ 10th in 12 games against the Devil Rays and kept them four games ahead of the second-place Red Sox in the AL East as Boston pummeled Baltimore 12-3.
“We all do things differently,” Joe Torre said of Pettitte’s performance being an outing other chuckers could build on. “Hopefully this becomes a little bit of a challenge.”
Pettitte, who had won two of his last three starts, noticed something wrong with his curveball in his previous start when the Indians beat him, 9-3, last Tuesday.
So, he and Stottlemyre worked on getting on top of the breaking pitch in the bullpen Friday.
“That was as good of an in-between session as he has had since I have been here,” Stottlemyre said. “His arm slot was higher with the curveball and it paid off. He had a good curveball today. He had been rolling it up there but he had good bite on it.”
Pettitte fanned seven in three innings, including four straight to bridge the end of the first and beginning of the second. He also whiffed the side in the third.
Pettitte, who is 5-4 but 3-1 in his last four starts, survived jams in the sixth and seventh. Thanks to Pettitte walking Randy Winn to start the sixth and Derek Jeter booting Aubrey Huff’s two-out grounder, Pettitte had runners on first and third but responded by fanning Jared Sandberg on a 1-2 pitch for his 10th punch out. John Flaherty’s one-out single in the seventh was followed by Brent Abernathy’s double to right-center that scored Flaherty and cut the Yankee lead to 6-1. With Abernathy on second, Pettitte got Carl Crawford on a grounder and whiffed Felix Escalona for his 12th and final K.
“This was what we needed staff-wise,” Stottlemyre said. “Not only a win but to pitch well. That gets contagious. We needed that.”