Pettitte’s Camden Yards History
Much of this was done against different lineups, but Andy Pettitte has pitched well in his last four starts at Camden Yards (the most recent was in 2010). In them, he’s allowed four earned runs and 17 hits in 27 2/3 innings, with 18 strikeouts, two walks and two home runs allowed.

Pettitte has thrown a couple of clunkers in Baltimore. He allowed nine runs there three times- in 1996, 2000 and 2007. No Orioles pitcher has more than one start of that nature in that park.

Pettitte’s Matchups to Watch
J.J. Hardy is 1-for-17 in his career against Pettitte (including an 0-for-2 in the 2010 postseason), though he only has two strikeouts. He’s hitless in 10 at-bats against Pettitte when he hits the ball on the ground.

Matt Wieters is 2-for-10 with six strikeouts in his career against Pettitte. Four of the whiffs have come on the fastball, the others coming on the cutter and curveball.


But Wieters has been a different hitter against lefties since the last time he faced Pettitte (September, 2010).

The chart on the right shows the difference in Wieters’ performance vs left-handed pitching over the course of his career.

Pettitte’s slider
Pettite’s success upon his return was predicated largely on the effectiveness of his slider, which netted 79 outs and yielded only 18 baserunners in his 12 appearances. The Orioles best hitter against lefty sliders was Nick Markakis who is out with an injury

The slider could neutralize Mark Reynolds, who didn’t have a hit on the 85 sliders he saw from lefties in 2012.

Pettite ranks atop most postseason leaderboards due to his volume of work in an era in which he pitched in three different rounds. He should move into second place on one list today. His 173 strikeouts are tied with Roger Clemens for second-most in postseason history. John Smoltz has the most, 199.


Wei-Yin Chen’s biggest issue
Chen allowed six home runs in 24 innings pitched against the Yankees during the regular season, including five in 17 1/3 innings pitched at Camden Yards.

Chen is 0-4 with a 5.05 ERA in his last six starts, though the last one was a good one- one earned run in 6 2/3 innings against the Rays on October 1.

Five different current Yankees homered once each against Chen, including a pair of lefties- Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson. The latter had his troubles in his other eight turns with no hits, seven outs, and four strikeouts.

The Yankees went 37-24 when the opposing team started a left-hander during the regular season and won five of the last six games in which a lefty opposed them. They’ve won four of the last five postseason matchups against lefty starters dating back to 2010, with the lone loss being to Cliff Lee and the Rangers.

Stat of the Day: Game 1
Yankees catcher Russell Martin became the second catcher in Yankees history to hit a go-ahead postseason homer in the ninth inning or later. The other was Jim Leyritz in Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS.

Martin also became the fourth Yankees player to hit a postseason go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later of a road game. The last was Roger Maris in the 1961 World Series.