Manny Acta: Pettitte "toyed" with young lineup

Among the best quotes to come from today's 11-2 victory was this from Indians manager Manny Acta talking about Andy Pettitte: "He basically toyed with our inexperienced lineup. He's been doing this for a lot of years and hasn't lost it. He threw that cutter inside and changed speeds well today. Only our veteran hitters were able to do OK against him. But you can see that he toyed with the young guys." 

Pettitte's line: seven innings, one run, four hits, five strikeouts, 0 walks. It was Pettitte's second straight game with no walks.

“Andy’s unbelievable,” said Alex Rodriguez, whose seventh-inning grand slam highlighted a six-run seventh inning that turned a 2-1 Yankees lead into an 8-1 one. “He’s got so much intensity and he executes his pitches. I really feel that he’s pitching better than he ever has in his career.”

The victory pulled Pettitte (7-1, 2.48) into a tie with Whitey Ford with career victories -- 236. Ford won all of his games with the Yankees; 199 of Pettitte’s wins have come with the Yankees.

“It’s awesome, it really is because he’s just been a special person for me in my career here,” Pettitte said. “He’s been a huge supporter of mine. He’s just a great man. I love him to death. He always been great to me since the time I’ve been here. For me that’s just pretty special to be able to tie him in wins.”

“Two great Yankees is what it is,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Think about what Whitey meant to this organization, you think about what Andy has meant to this organization. It’s an awful lot. Andy’s in great company.”

As for Rodriguez, he smiled at the absurd numbers he has when teams walk Mark Teixeira to load the bases to get to him: 5-for-5 with three home runs [including two grand slams], one walk, one sacrifice fly and 18 RBI.

"I  would appreciate it if we keep those numbers and not share them with any other managers," he said.

And with that, I'll talk to you from Toronto, though Jim Baumbach, Anthony Rieber and a multitude of others will occupy this space before then.

Javier Vazquez (3-5, 6.68) takes on Brian Matusz (2-5, 5.76) tomorrow night to start a three-game set against the Orioles.