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Game 102: Pitchers duel over who can waste less of an outing

Following last night's crisp exercise in hitting on all cylinders, tonight's opener to a 4-game set against the White Sox is headlined by the co-chairs of "A.R.M.S. Advocates for Rendering Meaningless Starts."

Andy Pettitte (8-6, 4.67) and Gavin Floyd (8-6, 4.64) both enter the game with weirdly identical stats and little to no momentum to speak of, though not for lack of raw performance. Pettitte pitched 6 scoreless innings in the beginning of last Saturday's loss before Aceves took a match to the frail 1-1 game. Against the Cubs, Floyd's third straight 7K-start was moot when the southsiders fell in the 10th.

Pettitte's ability to a win has been tucked away in Manhattan Mini-Storage for the past month, and Floyd's 17-win season in 2008 is bunking with Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" in the One-Hit-Wonder cabin. While his numbers may look more than satisfactory, they belie Floyd's real caliber, because he pitches for a team who "moved a season best 5 games over .500" with Mark Buehrle's perfecto.

But for some reason, Pettitte struggles against this defensive nightmare of a squad. Last week CC faced his demons and put a stop to the As' pattern of just owning him. Pettitte looks to follow suit tonight, and grab his first W in nearly a month against the 3rd place AL Central team against which Pettitte boasts a healthy 8.55 ERA, and in a stadium in which Pettitte has not won in over a decade.


Lineup

New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox

07/30/09 8:11 PM EDT

New York Yankees Chicago White Sox
Derek Jeter - SS Mark Kotsay - CF
Johnny Damon - LF Gordon Beckham - 3B
Mark Teixeira - 1B Jermaine Dye - RF
Alex Rodriguez - 3B Jim Thome - DH
Hideki Matsui - DH Paul Konerko - 1B
Nick Swisher - RF A.J. Pierzynski - C
Robinson Cano - 2B Carlos Quentin - LF
Melky Cabrera - CF Chris Getz - 2B
Jose Molina - C Jayson Nix - SS