Much like in a political campaign where your opponent attempts to bring you down by hammering away at your greatest strength to turn it into a weakness or non-factor, such seems to be the case with Andy Pettitte. Following Pettitte’s second retirement in 2013, the debate began on whether the lefty deserves a spot in Cooperstown, the anti-Pettitte crowd tore him down for his playoff record. One can argue whether or not Pettitte is hall worthy but going after accomplishments in post-season play is absurd.
Their chief reasons were Pettitte pitching for a dynasty Yankees team (never mind his helping pitch the Houston Astros to their first Pennant) pitching in the “Wild Card Era” with one more round (I guess all those writers still believe Babe Ruth’s 60 homers in a single season is still the record) and the amount of times Pettitte was able to pitch in the post-season, as though he had any control over any of those factors.
However, championships are championships and while Pettitte may not have always won on style points, the numbers are certainly there in the playoffs. But one can’t always rely on numbers alone. So let’s look inside the numbers on those playoff starts.
WINS: The 19 postseason wins are a Major League Baseball record, any way you slice it. Pettitte’s career regular season ERA is 3.85, in the playoffs it’s 3.81. In a way Pettitte gets burned much the way his former Yankees teammate Bernie Williams gets hurt in the playoffs, having great numbers in the ALDS and ALCS but not as dominant in the World Series. Of course it’s still the playoffs and you still have to get to the World Series to win the Fall Classic.
CLINCHERS: Pettitte’s first playoff win was the 1996 ALCS clincher in Game Five at Baltimore. The following season Pettitte started Game Five of the ALDS at Cleveland when David Cone couldn’t give it a go, kept the Yanks in it but wasn’t good enough and he was tagged for the loss. His first World Series clinching win came at San Diego in Game Four in 1998, the culmination of a historic season. Pettitte started the ALDS Game Five at Oakland in 2000, pitching on short rest he didn’t stick around long enough to record the win but pitched to the scoreboard nonetheless. The next series clinching game pitched by Pettitte in the 2000 postseason was Game Five of the World Series at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets. While Pettitte pitched exceedingly well to help the Yankees win, Mike Stanton once again added to his vulture status that post-season in getting credit for the win.
In the 2001 ALCS Pettitte capped off his ALCS MVP winning series with two wins including the Game Five clinching win over the 116 win Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium. On the flipside Pettitte’s World Series that year against the Arizona Diamondbacks was brutal, with Andy getting rocked in a potential series clinching Game Six at Arizona. In the 2003 ALCS, while all of Pettitte’s Game Two starts that post-season were solid, he could only pitch to the scoreboard and keep them in it until the bullpen imploded in a potential series clincher in Game Six at Yankee Stadium against the Boston Red Sox and ended up with a no decision.
Finally, of course most recently everyone knows about Pettitte’s clinching heroics in the 2009 post-season. Pettitte won Game Three of the ALDS at Minnesota, Game Six of the ALCS against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium and Game Six of the World Series on short rest against the Philadelphia Phillies at Yankee Stadium. Overall in series clinching games Pettitte went 6-2 with three no decisions, half of those clinching wins came on the road.
THE TEAM: A lot is made of Pettitte not being the most dominant member of the staff or the fact he was on such dominant teams, which it overshadowed what he accomplished. Yet the 2003 Yankees and 2005 Astros made the World Series, while neither did in 2004 when Pettitte then with Houston shut it down earlier in the season. In 32 series, 21 of those times Pettitte pitched for the team with the better record. Yet Pettitte, as I mentioned earlier, won his ALCS MVP against the 2001 Seattle Mariners,who won 116 games. Four times the team Pettitte pitched for in the World Series his team had an inferior record and three of those four times his team won, except for Houston in 2005.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: In the playoffs you’re facing the best of the best and while I know most pitchers will tell you they’re more concerned about the lineup they have to face rather than the opposing pitcher, the fact the other pitcher is likely an ace, adds even more pressure. Hence the other pitcher really does matter a lot more in this equation. Scott Erickson, John Smoltz, Rick Helling, Kevin Brown, Rick Helling, Brett Saberhagen, Kevin Appier, Aaron Sele, Aaron Sele, Aaron Sele, Brad Radke, Derek Lowe, Mark Redman, Tim Hudson, Carl Pavano, Joe Saunders, Cole Hamels, Pedro Martinez and Carl Pavano. Those are the 19 pitchers Pettitte started against in his post-season victories. Smoltz and Martinez are virtual Hall of Famers, Brown is borderline, Erickson, Lowe, Saberhagen, Appier, Hamels and Pavano have all had post-season moments and have pitched for championship teams.
Looking at the Yankees and Astros post-Pettitte, well the Astros haven’t sniffed the playoffs since he left and following his first departure from New York the Yankees won one playoff round before he came back and are still looking to get back to the playoffs, following his second and final departure. That’s with pitchers like Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Brown.
The favorite argument of Yankees fans when it comes to the Hall of Fame is Don Mattingly vs. Kirby Puckett. Both have similar stats, whether Donnie is a Hall of Fame player or not, Puckett gets the nod because of what he did in the playoffs and the fact that he has the rings. Hence championships do matter and last time I checked, Pettitte has five of ’em.
