When the Yankees announced Andy Pettitte was returning to the team, one of the common responses was to wonder how they were going to fit all of this starting pitching into one rotation.
It's just a bit more than a month later and the Yankees can't get Pettitte up to the big leagues soon enough. Michael Pineda blew out his shoulder, Freddy Garcia has been booted from the rotation and the team doesn't have anyone remotely reliable outside of CC Sabathia.
Sabathia pitched very well against the Tigers on Sunday, striking out eight in eight innings of two-run ball, and actually gave the bullpen a day to rest for a change. That's been unusual for the Yankees this season, especially since Sabathia broke out of the gate a bit slowly while the rest of the starters have been scuffling along.
The return to form for Sabathia is a good thing while the fact that Pettitte has gone from being a bonus to being a savior is a bad thing for the Yankees. If Ivan Nova and Hiroki Kuroda don't start turning in consistently good performances, it could all wind up being ugly in the Bronx.
Here's the rest of the good, bad and ugly from the baseball weekend:
GOOD: The Mets were humiliated on Friday evening by an 11-run inning that turned a lead into a massive deficit thanks to hideous relief work and they had more flops by "closer" Frank Francisco on Saturday and Sunday. They wound up winning the second two games, though, and that resiliency has been an impressive part of a start that has the Mets a game out of first in the NL East.
BAD: Robinson Cano got a couple of hits on Sunday, but his stat line for the year still looks anemic. He's hitting .264 and slugging just .391, numbers that need to start heading in the other direction for the Yankees to go on a nice, long run.
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UGLY: Francisco has now given up runs in five of his last six outings and nearly completed the awful job done by the bullpen in blowing another win for Johan Santana. The only place the Mets spent money this offseason was on the bullpen, but they don't have much to show for it at this point.
GOOD: Alex Rodriguez passed Willie Mays on the all-time RBI list on Sunday afternoon, which is a nice milestone to put in your back pocket. He also homered on Saturday, which is hopefully a sign that there are still big things in his bat.
BAD: Lucas Duda on any day but Saturday this season is hitting just .203 with no home runs and the Mets are 9-9 in those games. On Saturdays, he is hitting .500 with four homers and the Mets have won all four of their Saturday contests.
UGLY: Garcia has been leasing space in this category all season so it feels like we should have a retrospective set to some kind of overwrought ballad now that he's been tossed out of the rotation. Just as long as we don't have to watch him pitch anymore.
GOOD: April's coming to an end and both New York teams have winning records. There weren't too many people predicting that and it has made for an enjoyable baseball month.
BAD: It's all well and good that Brian Cashman spent Sunday's game out in the bleachers with his son and the rest of the creatures, but the whole spiky-haired wig thing makes no sense. You were making the visit public and wearing a disguise at the same time which is a strange decision tree to climb.
GOOD, BAD and UGLY: The Mets dressed up in western gear for their Sunday flight to Houston. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
