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PHILADELPHIA Fans would like to believe players can will themselves to greatness, particularly those infused with that most intangible quality: grit. There is no way to measure grit, but we know it when we see it, or at least we think we do.
Jimmy Rollins is gritty. So are Jorge Posada and Shane Victorino and Brett Gardner. And so, of course, is Andy Pettitte, the Yankees' first choice to start Game6 of the World Series tonight at Yankee Stadium.
Sometimes the grittiest players, the ones renowned for playing the right way and coming through at big moments, do not deliver. Derek Jeter came up as the potential tying run during the ninth inning of Game5 Monday, with Ryan Madson teetering on disaster for the Philadelphia Phillies. Madson threw a sinking fastball and Jeter grounded into a double play.
Watching from the bench, Pettitte might have sighed. When Mark Teixeira struck out for the final out, it meant more work for Pettitte in a season that seemed to reach the point of exhaustion Saturday.
"It was tough," Pettitte said that night, after beating the Phillies with six workmanlike innings. "I'm not going to lie to you. I couldn't put the ball where I wanted to, I wasn't getting it down and away consistently like I wanted to, and I wasn't able to throw my curveball for strikes. It was an absolute grind tonight, that's for sure."
The victory improved Pettitte's career postseason record to 17-9, but he said he could not remember any of those victories being as much of a struggle as Game3. Now, if he tells manager Joe Girardi he feels fine - and it is hard to imagine him saying otherwise - Pettitte will try to win again on three days' rest, with a championship at stake.
It will not be easy. A.J. Burnett pitched on short rest Monday, also with the title in sight, after a dominant performance in Game2. Yet Burnett had nothing - no curveball, no fastball command, no chance. Girardi said there was no correlation to the short rest and the poor performance, but what else could he say?
At this point, Girardi has no other options. Joba Chamberlain was the fourth starter during the regular season, but he faded as his innings limit approached, and now he is a short reliever again.
The Yankees' other starters were Sergio Mitre, an erratic right-hander who is not on the World Series roster, and Chad Gaudin, who has pitched one inning in a month.
There was a time when teams regularly would line up three starters and survive the postseason, as the Yankees are trying to do. From 1986 to 1991, the World Series champion never used more than three starters. Since then, every champion has used four.
Pettitte, 37, has not made starts four days apart since the end of the 2006 season, when he pitched for the Houston Astros. According to baseballreference.com, he is 4-6 with a 4.15 ERA on three days' rest for his career. But there is no recent data to analyze.
The Yankees know they can count on Pettitte's competitive will. If there is a way out of trouble, they know he will find it. But if his pitches are as lifeless as Burnett's were during Game5, there might be nothing he can do, no magic to summon. And his teammates must score against Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched since Game2 and rested the first half of the season.
"We're always confident with Andy pitching," Jeter said. "He's been in a lot of big games for us. He's come through for us. But we all have a job to do."
