Pettitte Mostly Struggles in Postseason

He’s considered a lock to win the American League Cy Young Award, but Yankee left-hander Andy Pettitte has prompted sighs in the Bronx lately. The staff ace and and Game 1 starter for the league championship series and World Series has won only once since Sept. 13.

In five postseason starts, Pettitte is 1-1 with a 6.16 earned-run average, and that includes his eight-inning, three-hit gem that beat Baltimore in the fifth and deciding game of the championship series. Pettitte lasted only 2 1/3 innings in Game 1 Sunday, giving up seven runs on six hits.

“I think it was just a matter of him not being sharp,” Manager Joe Torre said of Sunday’s start. “He was a little too fat with his pitches. He wasn’t the Pettitte that we are used to seeing . . . but he’s bounced back so many times this year.”

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Though Pettitte threw only 54 pitches, Torre said he will stick with his original plan to start Kenny Rogers in Game 4 instead of bringing Pettitte back on three days’ rest.

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Fred McGriff drove in the Braves’ first three runs with RBI singles in the first and third innings and a sacrifice fly in the fifth, but Mark Lemke also had a hand in all three rallies.

Lemke doubled to left with one out in the first and scored when McGriff dropped a single into left-center. Marquis Grissom doubled to right to open the third and took third on Lemke’s perfect sacrifice bunt. Chipper Jones walked, and McGriff singled to center to scored Grissom for a 2-0 lead.

Lemke opened the fifth with a single to center and Jones followed with a double into the right-field corner. McGriff just missed crushing a hanging Key curve, but got enough of it to send it to the warning track for a sacrifice fly and a 3-0 lead.

Atlanta added its final run in the sixth when Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter dropped Terry Pendleton’s pop in shallow right field, a play that was generously ruled a double. Pendleton took third on Jeff Blauser’s groundout and scored on Grissom’s single to center.

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Jeter was hit in the left wrist by a Greg Maddux fastball in the third inning and stayed in the game, but was in pain afterward. Torre said Jeter iced the wrist and should be able to start tonight.