Baseball

PAUL SOKOLOSKI

With pressure building quickly in their American League Championship Series, the New York Yankees needed someone who wouldn’t crack under it.

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New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte reacts after Los Angeles Angels’ Kendry Morales grounded out to end the top of the sixth inning Sunday night.

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They turned to their big-game pitcher to keep them from falling into a big jam.

After all these years, Andy Pettitte proved he still knows how to get the Yankees out of a rut.

The Yankees climbed towards another World Series on Sunday night because Pettitte pulled them right back onto the big stage.

He gave the Yankees 6 1/3 strong innings Sunday, before jogging off the mound to a standing ovation with a 3-1 lead at the new Yankee Stadium. He prodded the whole strike zone Sunday night, moving the ball inside and outside, up and down, with curves and cut fastballs and with the precision of a surgeon.

His blade was sharp, slipping in just one inning when the Los Angeles Angels nicked him for a run in the third. It didn’t take Pettitte long to stop the bleeding – for himself and the Yankees.

“Andy’s been through quite a bit,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said before the game. “He’s pitched a lot of big games and he’s had a lot of success in some of those games. It’s good to know you have someone out there who’s not going to be overwhelmed.”

For most of Game 6, Pettitte looked pretty overwhelming to the Los Angeles Angels.

He struck out six batters in the first five innings, retiring 10 of 12 Angels into the sixth inning. And when Los Angeles made a late charge at him, putting runners at second and third with two outs later in the sixth, Pettitte batted down a hard chopper, pounced on it, and cooly flipped to first base for the ining’s final out.

It was more evidence of how Pettitte has a knack for rising up at the right times for the Yankees. No other pitcher has won as many games in the postseason as Pettitte, who moved his career playoff record to 16-9 and passed Atlanta’s John Smoltz on the all-time postseason victory list.

“That stuff is great,” Pettitte said before the game. “I just feel so fortunate to have been able to play in this organization and been able to be on as many successful teams as we’ve put together here.”

Really, it’s the Yankees who are the fortunate ones to have Pettitte on the mound.

He’s the guy you call when it’s time to finish off a playoff series. Pettitte was the winning pitcher in two World Series-clinching games for the Yankees, in 1998 and again in 2000. Pettitte came into Sunday looking to win his fifth pennant-clinching game, which would break a tie with Dave Stewert, Catfish Hunter and Roger Clemons for the most all-time. And Pettitte has more postseason starts (37) and pitched more postseason innings (231) than any pitcher in baseball history.

“I’ve been around a long time and been in a lot of them,” said Pettitte, a four-time World Series champion with the Yankees. “You want to be successful. You want to get it done.”

He doesn’t win all the time.

Pettitte was the losing pitcher that last time the Yankees went to a World Series, despite allowing just two runs to the Florida Marlins on the night they became world champs in 2003. He went to Houston the next year, pitched in another World Series for the Astros in 2005, underwent elbow surgery before returning to the Yankees as a free agent in 2007.

He said he’s pitching pain-free now, and delivered the Yankees to the doorstep of one victory they sorely needed.

They didn’t want to go to a Game 7 after building an early 3-1 lead in the ALCS, because historically, teams that give away that kind of advantage don’t fare real well in winner-take-all games.

The Yankees know that better than anyone, after blowing a 3-0 lead in games to Boston in the 2004 ALCS the last time they got this close to a World Series.

That was before Pettitte got back to town, got back in the spotlight and got the Yankees back to looking like the best team in the American League again.