Andy Pettitte Eyeing September 19th Return To Yankees Following Second Minor League Rehab Start

Andy Pettitte, who's coming back from a groin injury, threw four effective innings in a rehab start for AA Trenton last week. Tuesday, he's scheduled to make his second and final minor league rehab appearance - also for Trenton, who is gunning for the Eastern League championship.

Pettitte is expected to throw around five innings or 80 pitches, and barring any setbacks, that will put him in line to return to the Yankees on Sunday the 19th to face the Orioles.

Andy Pettitte is not far away from returning from a groin injury. After throwing an incident-free bullpen Monday morning, he's off to AA Trenton for some rehab:

After completing his bullpen session on Monday with no issues, Andy Pettitte is set to make a rehab start on Wednesday night for Double-A Trenton.
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Pettitte will start Game 1 of Trenton's playoff series with New Hampshire on Wednesday night. He's scheduled to throw 65 pitches or complete four innings -- whichever comes first, according to manager Joe Girardi.

It's unknown if Pettitte will get a second rehab start before returning to the Yankees. If he comes back after one start in Trenton, he'll be on a low pitch count at first. If he gets two starts in Trenton, however, then he should be at close to full strength. Whatever he does and wherever he is a week from now, Pettitte should be all good to go once the big league playoffs roll around.

Facing some big questions marks about AJ Burnett and Javier Vazquez, the Yankees are finally getting some good news with regard to their starting rotation:

Pettitte threw 35 pitches on Sunday at a high intensity and felt very good both during and after. If nothing goes wrong from here on out, he should return after just a few more turns.

When the results of Andy Pettitte's MRI came back, they showed a persistent strain of the left groin. That was both good news and bad news - good, because it wasn't a situation requiring surgical intervention, but bad, because Pettitte was still hurt. So how's his recovery proceeding? Jack Curry gives us a timetable:

If things go well, then Pettitte should be able to get a handful of starts under his belt prior to the playoffs. Any more setbacks, though, would put a real onion in the ointment.

Andy Pettitte last pitched for the Yankees on July 18th, and was placed on the disabled list on July 20th with a groin injury. The team had hoped to have him back by the middle or end of August, but Pettitte hasn't been able to recover as desired, and after some setbacks and assorted delays, the team is going to check him out once more:

Pettitte is getting closer, but he's not as close as the Yankees would like him to be. In his absence, Dustin Moseley has started four games and worked long relief in another, allowing 12 runs in 28.2 innings.

Bronx, NY (Sports Network) – Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada each drove in two runs, and New York cobbled together 6 2/3 innings from its bullpen to come from behind and down Tampa Bay, 9-5, in the rubber match of a three-game set.

Rodriguez clubbed a solo homer, the 598th of his career, and Derek Jeter had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run, as the Yankees won for the 10th time in 12 games to improve their position in the AL East.

Chan-Ho Park (2-1) earned the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, as five pitchers took the hill after an injured Andy Pettitte left the game in the third inning. Mariano Rivera threw one pitch to get the final out in a non-save situation.

David Price (12-5) absorbed the loss after allowing a season-high seven runs on seven hits over five frames. He walked four and struck out three for the Rays, who had entered the series as winners in seven of their last nine games.

“I felt comfortable out there, I just didn’t have it,” said Price about his poor outing. “That’s a good team over there in that other locker room. After that first inning, we didn’t get anything else going.”

Tampa Bay struck in the first inning on an upper deck three-run home run by Carlos Pena. The visitors then got back-to-back singles from Ben Zobrist and Jason Bartlett before Gabe Kapler lined out and Kelly Shoppach bounced out to end the threat.

The Yankees answered back in their half of the frame on a two-out, two-run opposite field triple off the top of the left field wall by Cano.

Tampa Bay put two runners on with one out in the third before Pettitte left the game with a strained left groin while pitching to Shoppach.

“I really don’t remember exactly what happened,” said Pettitte of the injury. “I felt like I landed maybe a little awkward and I just felt like a burning sensation in there. As I stood there, I felt something kind of aching me a little bit. I tried to throw the warm-up pitch and felt fine when I threw it but when I brought my left leg over it didn’t feel good at all.”

David Robertson took over and missed with his second pitch to walk Shoppach to load the bases. However, the right-hander was able to avoid any damage by getting a pop up from Sean Rodriguez and a fly out from BJ Upton.

Jeter led off the home half with a single, stole second base and scored on a base hit by Mark Teixeira to tie the game.

New York scored four times in the fifth to take the lead for good. Brett Gardner drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on Jeter’s single to center. Jeter then advanced on a wild pitch, moved to third base on a fly out and scored on a two-out single by Rodriguez to make it a 5-3 game. After a walk to Cano, Posada delivered a two-run double to left field to push the lead to 7-3.

Nick Swisher’s two-out, run-scoring single in the sixth against Randy Choate gave the Yankees an 8-3 advantage.

Gabe Kapler’s solo home run off Boone Logan in the seventh cut the lead to 8-4 but Rodriguez slammed his long ball off Andy Sonnanstine in the bottom of the frame to make it a five-run cushion again.

Tampa Bay scored the final run of the game in the ninth off Joba Chamberlain on a run-scoring double by pinch-hitter Matt Joyce with two outs.

Jeter’s two hits moved him into a tie with Jesse Burkett for 41st place all- time with 2,850…The Yankees have won their last five “rubber” games and are 10-3 in series deciders this year…The season series is even at four apiece. Teixeira has reached base in 35 straight games, one shy of his career-high. Cano has hit safely in seven straight games…Carl Crawford of the Rays went 2-for-4 and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, while Evan Longoria and Bartlett extended their hitting streaks to five games…Pena is the only left-hand batter to hit a home run off Pettitte this season and he’s done it twice.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said following the team's 9-5 home win over the Tampa Bay Rays that starting pitcher Andy Pettitte will be placed on the disabled list with a strained left groin and is expected to miss at least a month.

Pettitte left in the third inning of Sunday's game with feelings of tightness after giving up consecutive singles to Jason Bartlett and Gabe Kapler.

He told the Star-Ledger, “I felt fine when I threw the warm-up pitch, but as I tried to bring my left leg over (to finish my follow through) it didn’t feel good at all.”

Sergio Mitre is expected to take over for Pettitte in what was supposed to be his next scheduled start on Saturdayat home against the Royals.