The New York Yankees defeat the Washington Nationals and Andy Pettitte returns

Published: 16^th Mar 12 11:34 pm

garymarchese
garymarchese

RANT It!

The New York Yankees beat the Washington Nationals in ten innings today by the score of 4-3. That wasn’t the news of the day though. Andy Pettitte signed a one year 2.5 million dollar minor league deal to return to the Yankees. There was also the news that Derek Jeter has a sore calf, but as usual he downplayed it and said it isn’t a big deal. It is never a dull moment around the Yankees.

CC Sabathia started the game and didn’t pitch too well. He wasn’t real bad but he just wasn’t sharp. Sabathia pitched three innings giving up six hits and three runs with one walk and two strikeouts. Rafael Soriano who has looked good all spring, pitched a perfect inning. Phil Hughes pitched really well in this game. He pitched four innings giving up three hits and he struck out three batters, Cesar Cabral pitched a perfect inning with a couple of strikeouts and Chase Whitley got the win pitching one inning and giving up a hit.

Curtis Granderson had a hit, Justin Maxwell had a hit and a walk and Robinson Cano had a hit and an RBI. Alex Rodriguez had a hit and two RBI, Mark Teixeira had two walks and Brandon Laird had an RBI. Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez each had a walk and Doug Bernier had a hit. Jayson Nix had a walk. Cano had a double and Rodriguez had a homerun. The Yankees were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Maxwell had a stolen base and Nix was caught stealing. The Yankees will be home against the Astros on Saturday afternoon.

The story of this game though wasn’t even the game. The story is Andy Pettitte and his return to the Yankees. Pettitte actually had a conversation with the Yankees in December. The Yankees offered him a one year deal worth between 10-12 million. Brian Cashman the Yankees GM, told him at that time he was going to pursue a trade for Michael Pineda and sign Hiroki Kuroda if Pettitte wasn’t going to sign. Pettitte told him to go ahead because he would need six weeks to see if he still wanted to do it or not. Cashman went ahead made the big trade and signed Kuroda. Pettitte decided to show up as a special guest instructor in March and told the Yankees then he was still interested. The Yankees kind of said ok now what do we do. They started negotiating and it wasn’t easy but he finally agreed on a one year 2.5 million minor league deal on Friday. It is pretty amazing that no one even knew about this to today. The Media and team did a good job of hiding this information. It does complicate things in the Yankees rotation. Pettitte though wont be back to early May at the earliest. There is a lot that can happen before then with injury and ineffectiveness. CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Hiroki Kuroda will be in. Pettitte when he comes back will be in and then it is between Pineda, Hughes and Garcia. I still think Garcia will end up as the long man and Hughes can go back in the pen as well. I don’t think they want to put Pineda in the minor leagues but they do have options on him. It should be interesting and stay tuned for all the drama.