Yankees Notebook: Pettitte’s hand fine, Kuroda throws bullpen

Andy Pettitte threw 95 pitches, but also fielded a comebacker from David Wright with his bare hand in the fifth inning. He threw three warmup pitchers after manager Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donohue consulted with him.

“My hand hurt,” Pettitte said. “I was like ‘Oh no.’ I was like I probably should not have done that.”

Pettitte had X-rays and on his left hand between the index and middle finger and said he was fine.

Kuroda throws bullpen session

Hiroki Kuroda gave another indication that he will make his next scheduled start Wednesday in Atlanta. He threw his normal bullpen session after getting hit on the foot by a Daniel Murphy comebacker Friday night.

After the game, Girardi said he does not envision Kuroda missing the start.

Nix fills in nicely at shortstop

Jayson Nix is listed as a third baseman/outfielder, but occasionally he can play shortstop. He did that for the 21st time in his career Sunday and made a pivotal play in the ninth after the Mets scored the tying run.

With nobody out, Omar Quintanilla hit a slow ground ball that Nix charged in on. Ike Davis raced towards third, but Nix reacted quickly and made a good throw to Alex Rodriguez for the out.

“I have to make it pretty quick,” Nix said. “I kind of feel the guy at second going to third as I was going to. As he was going to third, I was already coming in. It got pretty quick and I got him.”

Bay moves up

Eight different players had batted second in at least one game for the Mets.

Jason Bay is now number nine after Terry Collins moved him to that spot for just the third time in his career.

“Our thinking is, we got to protect David [Wright],” Collins said before the game “Somehow we have to make sure he gets pitches.”

Despite
missing fastballs badly — the kind of pitches hitters ahead of
Wright have seen most of their at-bats — Collins came to his decision
after meeting with the coaching staff Sunday morning.

Part of
their reasoning pertained to Bay’s numbers against Andy Pettitte.
Bay has batted .438 (14-for-32) lifetime off Pettitte. Those numbers
might be skewed by the fact that Bay last faced Pettitte in 2009 with
Boston when the left fielder was 4-for-10 in their matchups.

It
did not work, as Bay was 0-for-4 dropping his average to .197 and
making him hitless in 11 at-bats since returning from the DL.

Follow Yankees beat writer Larry Fleisher on Twitter @LarryFleisher.