By JOEL SHERMAN

In the long run of a baseball season, it is hard to pinpoint in real time which occurrences are truly important, especially truly important April moments. But in the short lens those 6 2-3 winning innings Thursday night by Andy Pettitte sure had that feel. It wasn’t avoiding a sweep in Kansas City before heading to Boston as much as Pettitte being able to endure both a 30-pitch first inning and a rain delay to generate 20 outs. The Yankee bullpen was just not in a good place.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY AND FOR MORE ON THE YANKEES AND ALL OF BASEBALL GO TO JOEL SHERMAN’S HARDBALL BLOG.