Pettitte Has Plenty Left in the Tank

BRIAN COSTA

SEATTLE — As Andy Pettitte showered and dressed after Thursday's game, his two oldest sons, ages 15 and 11, sat and waited for him by his locker.

To ease the toll of a major-league season on his family, Mr. Pettitte often takes his children with him on the road. And when the season is over, he may well go back to Deer Park, Texas, with them for good.

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At age 38, Andy Pettitte is 11-2 and headed to the All-Star Game.
But at the moment, he is making it difficult for the Yankees to imagine life without him.

At age 38, Mr. Pettitte is having one of his finest seasons. He is off to an 11-2 start with a 2.70 ERA. And with his family in tow, he was set to travel to Anaheim, Calif., Sunday night as a member of the American League All-Star team for the first time since 2001.

Contemplating retirement has become an annual rite of winter for Mr. Pettitte, and the next offseason will be no different. But he isn't making the decision any easier for himself.

Rather than showing signs of decline, Mr. Pettitte has instead performed better than in recent years, when he was a reliable but not a spectacular pitcher. He allowed only one run in eight innings Thursday against the Mariners in what was perhaps his best outing of the season. And he is on pace to win 20 games for the first time since 2003 and only the third time in his career.

If he does so, he would become only the 13th pitcher in major-league history to win 20 or more games at age 38 or older, according to Stats Inc. The last was Mike Mussina, who won 20 games at age 39 for the Yankees in 2008.

No one expected Mr. Pettitte to pitch poorly this season. But no one expected this, either.

"We always know that Andy is going to compete," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He's going to find ways to get out of jams. He's going to get double play balls. But I think if someone would have said Andy is going to be 11-2 at the break, it's hard to anticipate that."

There are only three other pitchers in the majors ages 38 or older who have started at least one game this season, and none of them have been anywhere near as effective as Mr. Pettitte.

Phillies lefty Jamie Moyer, 47, is 9-8 with a 4.51 ERA. Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, 43, is 3-7 with a 5.22 ERA. And Angels right-hander Brian Moehler is 1-4 with a 4.92 ERA.

It would be an exaggeration to call Mr. Pettitte ageless. He hasn't averaged above 90 mph on his fastball since 2007. And his legs tire earlier during games now than they did when he was younger, to the point that Mr. Pettitte said he modified his between-starts workouts recently to try to improve his stamina. But his age hasn't affected him where it counts.

"I know I'm getting older, because I can tell," Mr. Pettitte said. "It takes more to recover and stuff like that. But it's also a mindset, and I feel good.''

The first time Mr. Pettitte was an All-Star, in 1996, Mr. Girardi was his catcher with the Yankees. Now, Mr. Girardi said Mr. Pettitte has a better repertoire than he did then. But he hasn't overhauled his mechanics or his pitch selection so much as he has refined both.

"He used to be really a four-seamer, cutter inside or third-base side, and then curveball," Mr. Girardi said. "He threw his changeup, but he didn't have a lot of success with it. He didn't backdoor his cutter to righties like he does now. He didn't really have a sinker. He was more of a three-pitch pitcher. Now he's got four, but he uses them on different sides."

The one constant has been Mr. Pettitte's ability to work out of trouble. Only 18% of base runners have scored against him this season, according to Inside Edge, well below the major-league average of 24%. At some point, maybe a few months from now, Mr. Pettitte will decide he has had enough. He said last week he doesn't plan on pitching much longer.

But as he prepares to play in the All-Star game for the third and perhaps final time in his career, his retirement is the last thing the Yankees want to think about.


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