Andy Pettitte

The New York Yankees placed pitcher Andy Pettitte on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with a strained muscle in his back, the team said. Pettitte, 27, made one start this season and took the loss in a 7-5 defeat at Seattle last Friday. He allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings. The lefthander was 14-11 with a 4.70 ERA in 31 starts last season. To fill Pettitte's roster spot, the Yankees recalled pitcher Darrell Einertson from triple-A Columbus. He will be making his major-league debut.

Much of the talk had centered on the Houston Astros' three top starters, how well-rested they were and how they set up just perfectly to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. Well, one down. Two to go. The Cardinals dinged Houston Astros lefthander Andy Pettitte for five runs in six innings at Busch Stadium in last night's 5-3 victory in Game 1 of the seven-game series. But not before the Astros dinged Pettitte themselves. During batting practice, Astros righthander Roy Oswalt hit a ball off the inside part of Pettitte's right knee while Pettitte was running the bases.

The winning pitcher had a tear in his eye and his father in his heart. Andy Pettitte had a phone call to make. The history books will tell us that Pettitte pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings last night on the night the New York Yankees swept the World Series with a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres. But the tears in Andy Pettitte's eyes told us much, much more. After it was over, after the Yankees had piled on top of each other on the infield grass, after the champagne bottles had been emptied, Pettitte dialed the phone number of his parents' home in Louisiana.

THERE WAS A LOT of talk in the 1990s about so-called "juiced" baseballs. What else could explain the increase in the number and distance of home runs hit since the 1994 Major League Baseball strike? Turns out, more attention should've been paid to juiced players than juiced baseballs. Former Sen. George Mitchell's long-awaited report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs is a reality check for wanna-be superstars. The 311-page report details which players reportedly used the drugs and how the drugs were obtained.

Time and again, the New York Yankees need bailing out. Almost always, it's Andy Pettitte to the rescue. Pettitte came through again last night, stopping the Yankees' season-high five-game losing streak with a 6-2 victory over host California. In the process, Pettitte (19-7) became the American League's first 19-game winner in his second major league season. He allowed eight hits in eight innings to win his third straight decision. "There's a certain sense of security when Andy pitches," New York manager Joe Torre said.

The St. Louis Cardinals need this. They won 105 games last season. They had the best record in baseball, and arguably the best team. They handled the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League division series. They won a dramatic seven-game battle with the Houston Astros in the NL Championship Series. Then the Boston Red Sox whipped them in the World Series. A four-game sweep. They can't let that happen again, can they? They can't be that 100-win, dominant team that never wins it all, can they?

Andy Pettitte followed his heart back home to Houston, making a "gut-wrenching" decision yesterday to leave the New York Yankees and accept a $31.5 million, three-year contract with the Astros. New York wasted little time finding a replacement, agreeing to the outline of a tentative trade with Los Angeles that would send Kevin Brown to New York for Jeff Weaver, the Associated Press reported. The Yankees would send Los Angeles two minor-leaguers and $3 million to cover part of the $18.75 million Weaver is owed in 2004 and 2005, the Associated Press said.

EVEN KEVIN Millwood was caught up in Andy Pettitte's return to the big leagues. Still, he was happy to play the spoiler. Millwood pitched three-hit ball for seven innings and Casper Wells and Justin Smoak each hit a two-run homer, lifting the visiting Seattle Mariners past Pettitte and the New York Yankees, 6-2, Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep. "I was watching him," Millwood said of Pettitte, who hadn't pitched since retiring after the 2010 season. "I think everybody was kind of curious.

The Houston Astros made it clear they're making one final push for the postseason, firing manager Jimy Williams yesterday and bringing in Phil Garner. A season that began with World Series aspirations for the Astros has been slipping away, so general manager Gerry Hunsicker wanted an immediate and "dramatic" change. "There's a cloud that hung over our team for so long," he said. "Time is of the essence. We can't waste too much time here. " Garner, a former Astros player, is taking over on an interim basis.

EVEN KEVIN Millwood was caught up in Andy Pettitte's return to the big leagues. Still, he was happy to play the spoiler. Millwood pitched three-hit ball for seven innings and Casper Wells and Justin Smoak each hit a two-run homer, lifting the visiting Seattle Mariners past Pettitte and the New York Yankees, 6-2, Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep. "I was watching him," Millwood said of Pettitte, who hadn't pitched since retiring after the 2010 season. "I think everybody was kind of curious.

WASHINGTON - Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens sat some 20 feet apart, Pettitte on the witness stand and Clemens at the defense table trying to avoid going to jail. The topic: a remark about human-growth hormone Pettitte recalled hearing from his longtime teammate, mentor, and workout partner a dozen years ago. "Roger had mentioned to me that he had taken HGH," Pettitte testified. "And that it could help with recovery, and that's really all I remember about the conversation. " The rest of the details are fuzzy.

WASHINGTON - With two short answers, Andy Pettitte called into question the validity of his testimony against Roger Clemens, part of a rough day for prosecutors in the retrial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. After stumbling its way to a mistrial of Clemens last year, the government is struggling again in the retrial - to the point that the crux of Pettitte's testimony might be tossed out. First, the exasperated judge criticized the questioning of Pettitte on Wednesday, then he ruled against prosecutors in another matter.

TWENTY YEARS ago, Buck Showalter picked up his first managerial win in the majors as his New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox. Tuesday night, he got win No. 1,000, this time against the Yankees, as the visiting Baltimore Orioles beat the Yankees, 7-1. Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy homered off for the Orioles in their first win in five tries against the Yankees this year. Showalter improved to 1,000-958 in 14 seasons with the Yankees, Arizona, Texas and Baltimore. "I'm very appreciative of the players making me feel really young tonight, even though I'm an old goat," Showalter said.

NEW YORK - The winningest pitcher in postseason history was standing in a Yankee Stadium hallway searching. While his teammates celebrated by spraying champagne all over one another a few feet away, Andy Pettitte couldn't smile yet. "I don't know where they're at," Pettitte said to a Major League Baseball official. "Everyone's family is here but mine. " A man walked by and congratulated Pettitte. He thanked him, but his eyes darted away, still searching. Pettitte signed a ball for a little girl.

Andy Pettitte may not be the face of the Yankees. Yet, there's little dispute that Pettitte's has been the most ubiquitous face of postseason baseball the last 14 seasons. The television cameras love to hone in on a pitcher's face, sometimes offering revealing shots of tension, anxiety, excitement, confidence or poise. In Pettitte's case, it reveals intense concentration. When the Yankees' 37-year-old lefthander looks for a sign from his catcher as he prepares to deliver a pitch, all that's visible from the camera shot are his coal-black eyes because he holds his glove high and the bill of his cap is pulled low. It's become such a familiar postseason stare because Pettitte has more postseason starts (38)

Relocated Two games between the Chicago Cubs and Astros that were postponed this weekend in Houston because of Hurricane Ike will now be played in Milwaukee. The Cubs and Astros will play at 7:05 p.m. today and 1:05 p.m. tomorrow at Miller Park, with Houston being the home team. (That's even though Chicago is the closest NL city to Milwaukee and the stands are likely to be packed with Cubs fans.) If the third game of the series needs to be played, it will be Sept. 29 at Houston.

Roger Clemens arrived at the Houston Astros' minor league clubhouse in Kissimmee, Fla., yesterday and walked straight to a fenced-in bullpen to greet his oldest son, Koby, a catcher in the Astros' system. He snapped at a photographer who started clicking pictures. "This isn't a zoo!" Clemens barked. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner was calmer a few minutes later, but refused to answer questions about the Mitchell Report or a possible criminal investigation into his denials of steroid use. "Everything's been said that needs to be said on that," Clemens said.

Andy Pettitte said he was sorry. Sorry he took human growth hormone. Sorry his friendship with Roger Clemens has been fractured. Sorry he didn't tell the whole truth at first. This was the message the veteran New York Yankees lefthander delivered to a packed house of reporters in an hour-long news conference at the team's spring-training compound yesterday. "The easy way would have been to not face anyone," said Pettitte, explaining why he scheduled the news conference.

THERE WAS A LOT of talk in the 1990s about so-called "juiced" baseballs. What else could explain the increase in the number and distance of home runs hit since the 1994 Major League Baseball strike? Turns out, more attention should've been paid to juiced players than juiced baseballs. Former Sen. George Mitchell's long-awaited report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs is a reality check for wanna-be superstars. The 311-page report details which players reportedly used the drugs and how the drugs were obtained.