A-Rod's Return Pushed Aside In Bad Loss To the White Sox

CHICAGO -- The headline of this game was suppose to be the return of Alex Rodriguez. But instead, we now have to talk about how Andy Pettitte came out and pretty much ruined the night giving up six runs in only 2 2/3 innings in the Yanks 8-1 loss to the White Sox.

"It's frustrating. There's just no other way I can say it," Pettitte said. "[It was] just so disappointing. Obviously I didn't feel like they hit the ball real hard. The second inning, I felt like they hit it, I left a couple balls in the zone but, man, we're trying to win series and for me to go out there and to give up three in the first ... it's just so disappointing."

Pettitte was knocked around the park all night, he just couldn't seem to settle in from the first pitch onwards, yielding three runs in the first inning to a Sox team that had scored four runs total in their last four games coming into play.

Chicago added another run on Pettitte in the second inning, then two more in the third inning to pretty much put the game out of reach early, making it 7-0. Pettitte was removed from the game after walking Alex Rios to load the bases.

"I mean, you look at the first inning, they didn't really hit him hard," Girardi said. "You look at the second inning, they didn't hit him hard, but [the hits] were just well placed. But I think the first two innings wore him out. He threw a ton of pitches."

"Obviously after those first couple innings, I ran out of gas," Pettitte added. "I can't work like I used to and I can't be throwing 60 pitches in the first two innings of a start anymore."

From there, the Yankees' bullpen was forced to carry most of the workload once again. Preston Claiborne gave 1 1/3 innings on only one hits and a pair of walks. Shawn Kelley put the biggest outing, throwing 49 pitches in two innings, allowing a runs. Then both Boone Logan and Joba Chamberlain tossed a scoreless inning of relief.

Then, of course, there was the biggest story of them all - A-Rod. He began his night with a bloop single single to left in his first at-bat, a flyoff to deep center in his second time around, a sharp warning track line-out to left in his third at-bat, then he struck out looking in his final plate appearance of the night.

"I felt OK, for the first game," Rodriguez said. "It was hard today, that's for sure. [A] long day. I felt pretty good. From this moment on I want to focus on baseball like it's do or die. Every game's very important for us."

A-Rod didn't look that bad for a man who hasn't play big league baseball since October and isn't coming of the second hip surgery in his career, and isn't 38-years-old. I thought he took some nice swings.

"His swing looked more explosive," said Girardi. "You kind of see him get into his legs a little bit more. You see more torque in his swing. I thought he just missed the ball to center field."

As for the only that the Yankees would score on the night, Eduardo Nunez lifted a fly ball deep enough to left field in the 7th inning that let Brett Gardner tag and score from third to put the Yanks on the board.

"It's a bad way to start the series," Girardi said. "You're facing their ace [Tuesday]. It's a bad way, but we've got to win a game and we've got to start playing better, there's no doubt about it."

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