TAMPA, Fla. -- It was a scary moment. The barrel of the bat came hurling at Andy Pettitte in the first inning with the ball just feet away from it. Which one should he shy away from?
"That was easy," the Yankees left-hander said following his three-inning outing against the Reds on Wednesday night. "The bat's going to hurt a lot more if I get hit with it than the ball."
Pettitte, though, was nicked on the ring finger of his pitching hand by a sliver of wood, causing some blood and swelling. The medical staff looked at it and, with some urging by the left-hander, gave Pettitte the go-ahead to finish his stint.
In the next inning, Pettitte showed his moxie when he worked out of a no-out, loaded-bases situation.
He struck out Javier Valentin on three straight pitches, then induced Juan Castro into an inning-ending double play when he threw his only cutter of the night.
"My command wasn't the best tonight, but I was able to work all my pitches," said Pettitte, who threw 49 pitches, 27 for strikes. "I don't know what it was tonight. Getting hit on the hand might have affected it a bit, or it might have been pitching at night. But the good thing was that I was able to face some situations to work out of."
After the game, in which Pettitte allowed three hits, walked two and struck out one, he said the swelling had gone down and his finger had been bandaged.
Joe Torre didn't seem too worried, either. Torre said trainer Gene Monahan looked at Pettitte when they visited him on the mound and allowed him to keep pitching.
"Geno, who I trust, felt it was no danger, and Andy understands the situation," said Torre. "During the season, he might go out there and keep pitching only because of the nature of his competitiveness. But here, in Spring Training, he knows whether it's bad enough that he should take himself out of the game."
Catcher Jorge Posada said Pettitte's command was a little erratic, but he was happy with how he battled out of trouble.
"His command was a little bit all over the place," said Posada. "But he got the pitch when he needed it. He was good. Good changeup, good curveball. He worked all the pitches, which is good for him."
