Celebration short-lived, Yankees’ bats fail Pettitte in loss to Mariners

On a beautiful day for celebrations, the New York Yankees’ welcome home party for Andy Pettitte didn’t go quite as hoped. Pettitte, making his first start since 2010, was handed a loss by the Seattle Mariners by a score of 6-2.

Pettitte was very effective in his first few innings. He threw only 35 pitches through the third inning. He made a bad pitch to Justin Smoak in the fourth and Smoak made him pay for it with a two-run shot. The fifth inning was fine, but then he got in trouble in the sixth and it became obvious that he was losing something.

Dustin Ackley started the inning with a single. Then Casper Wells hit a cutter with no movement into the net of the right field foul pole to put the Mariners up 4-1. After Ichiro Suzuki grounded out, Pettitte allowed three straight singles to load the bases. Mike Carp ripped a ball to first baseman Mark Teixeira, who made a very nice play. He got the force at first and then fired to Russell Martin at home who applied the tag to Jesus Montero for an inning-ending double play.

Pettitte would come out in the seventh and retired Michael Saunders, who ended up be the past hitter he’d face. He walked off to a standing ovation. Pettitte ended the game with 6.1 innings pitched, 94 pitches, four earned runs on seven hits and three walks, while striking out two. It wasn’t great, but this loss had something to do with the offense as well.

The current Yankees roster came into the game hitting a collective .340 against Kevin Millwood, so they had to like their chances. Millwood, however had different thoughts. He pitched well, keeping pitches off the plate but the Yankees had a couple of chances to do some damage on two separate occasions and failed each time.

Their best chance came in the bottom of the fifth. Behind 1-0, the Yanks had the bases loaded with no one out and could only muster a RBI-walk by Martin. In the bottom of the sixth, they again had the bases loaded, this time with two outs. They were only able to score one run on a Robinson Cano walk. The Mariners put the game out of reach with two runs in the top of the ninth off Clay Rapada, highlighted by a Wells’ two-RBI single.

YANKS EMBARK ON FIVE-GAME ROAD TRIP

The Yankees travel today to meet the Baltimore Orioles in a two-game series and then head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays. Below are statistical leaders for the Orioles series. Check out the Yanks Go Yard Podcast for a preview of the Orioles series.

TODAY’S GAME

Ivan Nova takes on Jason Hammel in the series opener. Here is the tale of the tape.

NOTEWORTHY

• Jeter tied Robin Yount for 16^th place on the all-time hits list at 3,142. Paul Waner (3,152) and George Brett (3,154) are next on the list.
• Assuming Pettitte comes out of yesterday’s outing well, he is set to start the series opener against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday at Yankee Stadium.

EDITORIAL NOTE 

Check back later in the day as I look under the microscope at Teixeira’s start to the season. Is it going to be like this every year?