While Chien-Ming Wang is struggling compared to where he was last year, Andy Pettitte is pitching much better than I expected so far. He never does that great in cold weather and it’s been pretty chilly out (well, one of his starts was in a dome and also Florida but you know what I mean) so I am pretty surprised.
Andy’s first three starts in 2008:
| Date | Team | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K | GO | AO |
| 04-05 | TBR | 5.0 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 3 |
| 04-10 | KCR | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 7 |
| 04-15 | TBR | 7.0 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 8 |
Andy’s first three starts in 2009:
| Date | Team | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K | GO | AO |
| 04-10 | TBR | 7.1 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| 04-15 | KCR | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| 04-21 | OAK | 7.0 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 |
On the surface they look pretty similar but there are a few small things. I like that he is walking less batters (yes even one less a game means a lot–Tampa and Oakland do have guys who excel at getting on base), but I don’t like that he is getting a lot more air outs right now. Hopefully the groundballs will come as his secondary stuff starts working consistently well, it’s a minor nitpick for the time being.
I also really like that he’s pitched 7 innings in each game. After the Wang disaster, and Joba and CC not lasting very long the bullpen really needed some rest and Andy has been able to help out there.
So, three quality starts in a row. I don’t know how long it will last–especially since his next start is in Fenway–but I’ll take it. He definitely did not have his best stuff or control tonight and was let down by a certain third baseman who is not Alex Rodriguez a few times but he battled out of it. The A’s don’t really have a great lineup by any means but that middle three of Jason Giambi-Matt Holliday-Jack Cust is tough if only because they are patient as Hell.
Other minor game notes:
Brian Bruney’s streak of scoreless innings ended but he looked pretty good still. Holliday was a tough out for him, but he got it done.
The play of the game was Orlando Cabrera trying to bunt for a hit off Mariano, though. It popped up and Mariano just sort of reached out his glove. I wish I had a screencap but MLB.TV doesn’t put up the archives for local games until the next morning.
