Welcome back, Andy

Andy Pettitte was 2-4 with a 6.20 ERA in his last nine starts.

Tonight, however, he held the A's to one run over eight innings five days after his terrible, awful start against the Kansas City Royals. He also struck out six, walked run and gave up five hits.

Pettitte is traditionally a second-half pitcher, and while it technically hasn't started yet, the Yankees need Pettitte to come up big. Tonight's effort is obviously a step in the right direction. He is now 6-5 with a 4.64 ERA on the season.

He was buoyed by Hideki Matsui's sixth-inning grand slam - the only runs the Yankees would score on the night. Pettitte had been plagued by giving up leads and have one bad inning, but he was able to pitch a rather clean game.

Mariano Rivera recorded his 18th save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth inning. He has now been used in five of the last six games.

With the victory, Pettitte tied Ron Guidry on the all-time Yankees' wins list with 170.

The Yankees will arrive in Houston later this morning to take on the Astros at 8:05. Joba Chamberlain, who has already arrived in the city, will make his third start of the season.

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Bruney vs. Torre

Brian Bruney is in better shape and seems confident. He spoke to reporters yesterday, talking about his problems last year, especially with Joe Torre.

From Mark Feinsand:

"With Torre - and I'm not trying to bad-mouth anybody - sometimes you would go out there and try to be so good because you were scared of doing bad," Bruney said. "You can't pitch like that. (Joe) Girardi understands that you make mistakes - and I'm going to make them."

Bruney also said that he used to dread coming to the ballpark and that he never talked to Ron Guidry last year. He has formed a bond with new pitching coach Dave Eiland.

He is now "not scared to fail." Bruney has a good arm, but he ran into problems when he couldn't find the plate. Eiland has been successful with the young pitchers coming up through the organization, so hopefully he can get through to Bruney. The bullpen needs all the help it can get.