Pettitte Makes Final Home Start On Mo's Special Day

Happy Mariano Rivera Day. Today in the Bronx, the Yankees will be holding a pregame ceremony to honor the great Mariano Rivera as he prepares to enter retire after next Sunday's regular season finale in Houston -- assuming the Yanks don't make the playoffs.

It's sure going to be an emotional day at Yankee Stadium, and in the process of celebrating Mo, the Yankees are also trying to get the sweep of the San Francisco Giants after taking Friday's opener 5-1, and winning on Saturday 6-0 after a dominating complete-game shutout by Ivan Nova -- his second of the season.

With just seven games remaining this season, the Yankees still have a lot of work to do in order the clinch a Wild Card berth, and with the Tampa Bay Rays coming into the Bronx this week for three-games, the Yanks have a great chance to control their own destiny.

"If we play like we played last night and today, we can win all seven games that are left," Alfonso Soriano said. "But we try not to put too much pressure on us; just play one game at a time like we played today, come back tomorrow with the same energy and try to win tomorrow."

Today's Lineup vs San Francisco:

Ichiro RF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Granderson CF
Nunez 3B
Reynolds 1B
Ryan SS
Stewart C
Pettitte LHP

Pitching Preview:

This may be Mariano Rivera's day, but it'll be Andy Pettitte's game. Today against the Giants, Pettitte will take the mound for the Yankees two days after announcing that he'll retiring at the end of this season alongside Rivera, making this his final start at Yankee Stadium.

"It's like brothers," Rivera said of him and Pettitte going out together. "We came up with this organization at the same time. We've been through good times and bad times, but at the same time, we have enjoyed what we do. Now we're going out together, too."

Over the past few weeks, Pettitte has been probably the Yankees' best starter. In 12 starts since the All-Star break, he's only won three of those starts, mostly because of run support problems, but he does have an ERA of 3.30 over that span. He hasn't given up more than three runs since August 5th, spanning 8 starts.

Pettitte is coming off a good start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday when he gave up just one run on six hits over 6.1 innings, but the Yankees couldn't score any runs to back him up, losing to the Jays, 2-0. Sunday will bring us one game closer to the end of an era, with Pettitte and Rivera leaving Jeter as the last remaining member of the Core Four.

"We've had a great run here," Pettitte said. "Part of me coming back was to try to do this run again with the group of guys that we had here, and it's starting to get toward the end of that. We had a great run here, and my time here is done."

Taking the mound for the Giants in this series finale will be right-hander Yusmeiro Petit, who is 4-0 since being called up on August 23rd. One of those wins came against the Padres when he was one out away from pitching a perfect game.

Petit is going for his fifth win in seven contests with the Giants. His last start was against the New York Mets on Tuesday when he gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks, but was still able to take home the victory.

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