Was at the stadium tonight to witness Andy Pettitte's second straight dominant start and another offensive explosion from the Yankees offense. Over his past two starts Pettitte has tossed 15 innings, struck out 15 batters, walked two, allowed 10 hits and just one run. Looks like that second half trend is beginning a little bit earlier this year.Out of the visitor's dugout came Randy Wolf, another lefthanded starter who has recently been linked to the Yankees as a potential trade target. Unfortunately for Wolf fans, the lefty's try-out did not go as planned. [I'd like to state that I have zero interest in Wolf and would much rather see McCutchen, Horne, Aceves, for an extended period of time instead]
After retiring the side in the first, Alex Rodriguez welcomed Wolf to New York in the second inning with a bomb to straight away center field. As soon as A-Rod connected I was thinking double off the wall [which he did later in the game], only to watch in amazement as it landed in the Yankees bullpen a hundred feet in front of me. Rodriguez is beginning to heat up - after Tuesday night's game he is now hitting .328 and to lead the team in batting average.
Jason Giambi added two moonshots of his own, and the Wolf-to-the-Bronx experiment met an abrupt finish. The two homers were numbers 16 and 17 on the season and his three RBI gives the Big G a very respectable 40 RBI this season. Giambi has a lot of people, myself included, eating crow considering the type of production many expected from him this year [i.e. a .230 batting average and 10 homers before an extended stay on the DL].
The final line on Wolf: 4 innings, six hits, seven runs [five earned], two walks, two strikeouts and three home runs.
Farm News:
The unbelievable story of Alfredo Aceves continues to grow as the 25 year-old RHP proved tonight he has no challenges left for him at AA-Trenton. Over eight scoreless innings Tuesday night, Aceves allowed just one hit, struck out four and walked two. Over six starts at AA, Mr. Aceves has a 1.64 ERA over 44 innings [7+ innings per start], striking out 33, walking just 5, with 33 hits and a ridiculous WHIP of 0.86.
In the same game, Austin Jackson went 4-for-5, hit his fourth homer in as many games [his seventh] and picked up four RBI [his 45th] while upping his batting average to .283 this year. After a slow start Jackson has shown all the reasons he scorched up prospect lists - interestingly enough, it was last June when A-Jack began to catch fire at Tampa. This is an exceptional athlete who possesses "easy speed," a strong glove/arm, all of which compliments an impact bat whose power is just beginning to emerge.
2 comments:
"Over his past two starts Pettitte has tossed 15 innings, struck out 15 batters, walked two, allowed 10 hits and just one run. Looks like that second half trend is beginning a little bit earlier this year."
You need to add in that Pettitte is feasting on the NL. When Pettitte was healthy in the NL he dominated them much the same. His Ks were way up.
Thanks for the comments Tripp, but the last two starts for Pettitte were against OAKLAND and San Diego so that's only one NL team and one AL team. I'm not suggesting the A's are the '27 Yankees, but they've scored a bunch of runs this year - just ask D.Rasner.
Either way, when Pettitte throws 8 innings of one-run ball and follows it up with a 7 inning start & 9 strikeouts, it's a good sign for Pettitte.
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