Pettitte tests groin in bullpen session, feels OK

CHICAGO - The step forward was that there wasn't a step back.

Andy Pettitte got through a 25-pitch bullpen session Friday afternoon, and although he said he felt "no discomfort at all" in the groin he originally strained July 18, he acknowledged that the more significant test is still to come.

"The big test for me is whenever a hitter gets in there or I try to pump up and throw hard," said Pettitte, who indicated he threw at 75 percent intensity.

He didn't try to push off the rubber the way he did Aug. 17, the last time he took the mound. He experienced a setback in that session and had an MRI that night that showed "a small, persistent strain.''

"Geno was just like, 'Don't go out there and try and blow it out,' " Pettitte said. " 'You haven't been on [a mound]. Just go out there nice and easy and get comfortable with your mechanics and go through it, get out of there and then let's move on.' This is part of the process for me to build it back up."

After the Aug. 17 setback, the Yankees had him cease just about all activities, including running and playing long toss. Because Pettitte likes to throw every day, he said his groin felt better Friday than his arm did. He also said he feels heavy and out of shape and added that he needs to run.

Pettitte said of the groin, "I just didn't want it to hurt today. If I hurt it today, what were they going to do, shut me down for [another] 21/2 weeks? Then you're like, uh-oh. So obviously I feel a lot better about it. It feels good. I'm glad it didn't bother me.''

Although it wasn't the make-or-break session it had been made out to be, it was far from insignificant. "We all were kind of keeping our fingers crossed with this one," Joe Girardi said. "It's encouraging. He didn't have that little tug that he's talked about, so that's good news."

Girardi said the plan is for Pettitte to throw another bullpen session Sunday, though it's not certain that he'll push off.

The Yankees had hoped to have Pettitte for the entire month of September. Even after the setback, they maintained optimism that they could get him back in time to make at least three starts before the postseason. "If it's only two, it's two," Girardi said. "We'll take what we can get."

Pettitte said he was anxious in advance of Friday's session. "I haven't been sleeping well because I don't want it to bother me," he said. "I want to come back to pitch down the stretch and hopefully pitch in the playoffs. That's the whole point . . . At one time I felt I was a week ahead of schedule and then now we're almost into six weeks, so it's definitely been a frustrating ordeal."

Earlier, Pettitte said, "I feel like this thing's healed up. I feel like now it's just a matter of building the strength back up in there, and the only way to do that is to get up on the mound and throw pitches and get stamina built back up."

Pettitte said one reason he didn't want to push Friday's session was because in his previous bullpen sessions before the Aug. 17 setback, "I might have pushed too hard too many times and not paid enough attention" to the groin.

He added, "It's getting close to the end of the season and I realize I'm just throwing 25 pitches off the mound. I realize where we're at. I just want to make sure I do what they tell me to and we don't have any setbacks."