Pettitte baffles M’s

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

SEATTLE — Edgar Martinez faced a guy named Andy Pettitte earlier this season. He was left-handed, was wearing a New York Yankees cap, and looked a lot like the pitcher facing the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday afternoon.

This couldn’t have been the same guy.

"We faced him once in New York that I can remember," Martinez said after Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to the Yankees, "and that day he wasn’t as effective as he was today. He made some mistakes, and we had a good game against him. But today, he kept everybody off the bases and pitched very well."

Pettitte, the 29-year-old Yankees southpaw who was 0-2 with an 8.03 earned run average against the Mariners during the regular season, was in rare form on Wednesday. Actually, he was in postseason form.

Pettitte’s outing Wednesday, eight innings of three-hit ball that yielded just one Seattle run, was pretty typical of what he’s done in the postseason. It marked his third consecutive victory in American League Championship Series starts, lowering his ERA in ALCS games to 2.05 since 1999.

"He’s a very underrated pitcher. He’s pitched in some big games for them," Mariners outfielder Jay Buhner said. "Some people rise to the occasion. Some guys are big-game players. Some people thrive on that. Guys that have had success, they key off that. It does wonders for your confidence. He’s had a lot of postseason experience, so that certainly helps."

Pettitte’s weapon of choice Wednesday was variation. The Mariners hitters were left scratching their heads afterward as to what exactly Pettitte was doing during his impressive outing.

"I never know how he’s going to come at me," Mariners second baseman Bret Boone said. "Sometimes he just throws me cutters, cutters, cutters. Sometimes he throws me a lot of curveballs and changeups. Sometimes he throws me two-seamers away. I never know how he’s going to come at me.

"I think the key for him today was, he threw a lot of strikes."

Said Buhner, who struck out twice: "He changed it up and didn’t give me any set pattern. He changed my eyes. I went from (looking) down here to up. That’s a good pitcher."

The only time Pettitte allowed a Seattle batter to draw three balls was when he walked John Olerud in the second inning.

While Mariners starter Aaron Sele allowed lead-off runners in five of his six innings, Pettitte retired the leadoff hitter six times in eight innings of work. His outing marked the third time in his postseason career that he has pitched eight or more innings.

Pettitte’s curveball was especially effective Wednesday, but he also used a 94 mph fastball and a wicked slider to bail him out of a couple jams.

"He’s got a slider or a cutter, something in between, and if he has that working with good bite, he’s always going to be tough," Boone said. "He had a good one today."

The Mariners looked like they might break Pettitte on two occasions.

In the fifth inning, Martinez and Mike Cameron had back-to-back hits to put runners on second and third with no outs. Olerud grounded out to shortstop to drive in the Mariners’ first run, but Pettitte struck out Buhner and Dan Wilson on eight pitches to end the inning.

The seventh inning provided another Seattle opportunity, as Martinez came up with Boone on first base and no one out. Pettitte threw a tough slider to strike out Martinez, then got Cameron to ground into a double play.

"I thought that was an inning when we had a really good chance to get something going," Martinez said. "It just didn’t work out. He made some really good pitches, and got out of things."

Pettitte is 6-2 in playoff games since 1998.

"In postseason, it’s so easy to get distracted with the fans, with the time between innings, just a lot of things that go on," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "But he has stood tall in the postseason. … I think the most impressive thing that he does is that he is able to really focus and block everything out."

Pettitte has pitched at least seven innings in 11 of 21 career postseason starts. He has gotten touched up at times, leading to an ERA of 3.96 in playoff games, but when he’s on in the postseason, he’s really on.

"I just had good stuff today," Pettitte said. "I really felt like I had a good curveball, a better curveball than I’ve had in awhile. I was really able to throw for strikes whenever I wanted to."