Yankees Beat Rays, Pettitte Leaves With Groin Injury

Written by Administrator

Monday, 19 July 2010 09:00

The New York Yankees are in first place in the American League East with the best record in baseball, but all of a sudden their starting pitching has become a concern. On Saturday, the Yankees’ AJ Burnett left the game early with cuts on his pitching hand and on Sunday the team lost lefthander Andy Pettitte to an apparent groin injury. Despite losing Pettitte to injury, the Yankees’ offense picked up the slack and New York beat Tampa Bay 9-5 to take the weekend series between the sport’s two best teams.

With Tampa ace David Price on the hill for the opposition, the Yankees were a short -135 baseball betting favorite in the contest. New York improved to 30-14 +5.1 units at Yankee Stadium, while Tampa Bay’s road record slipped to 26-16 +11.1 units. The Rays have been very dangerous against left handed pitching this season, and Sunday’s loss was only their 10th facing southpaw starters against 22 wins. The 14 combined runs scored went well OVER the posted total of 8’. All eight meetings between the Yankees and Rays this season have gone OVER the total.

Pettitte is heading to the disabled list, and is expected to be out of action for up to five weeks. In his postgame comments he said that timeframe could change depending on how he feels in the next few days:

"It was painful out there. The doctor said the next couple days how I feel is probably going to dictate how long I'll be out."

Pettitte gave credit to the bullpen for gutting out the victory after a tough game on Saturday:

"It was a great job by the bullpen, especially after yesterday. You couldn't pick a worse day for me to go down.”

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon credited the Yankees for their ability to fight back from adversity and earn a win:

"We kind of had them on the ropes again, and then it kind of went away. I thought we played good baseball for three days. We just didn't pitch well today."

This is the second significant groin injury Pettitte has suffered during his career, having missed 15 days in the 2001 season. The Yankees will recall righthander Sergio Mitre from the disabled list to take Pettitte’s spot in the lineup. Mitre will make a rehab start for the Yankees’ Triple A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday and then take Pettitte’s rotation turn next Saturday.

New York has now opened up a 4 game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East and has a chance to pick up even more ground with their next two series scheduled at home. The Los Angeles Angels come in for a quick two game set early this week, followed by the lowly Kansas City Royals. The Rays stay on the road for the week, though they will take a ‘drop in class’ as they head to Baltimore and then on to Cleveland for a weekend series.

< Prev		Next >

Yankees Beat Rays, Pettitte Leaves With Groin Injury

Yankees Beat Rays, Pettitte Leaves With Groin Injury

Whats Hot Now