New York Yankees: Andy Pettitte a Step Closer to Bronx with Latest Minors Start

While the New York Yankees began their 2012 regular season Friday, Andy Pettitte has begun his spring training.

The 39-year-old announced he was coming out of retirement in mid-March, which was already a month through spring training, so it was pretty well known Pettitte wasn't going to start out with the Yankees in April.

Pettitte pitched in Monday night's Class A game for the Tampa Yankees against Clearwater, the Class A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Pettitte pitched three innings, allowed one run on two hits and struck out two. He also only threw 32 pitches in the three innings, 26 of them were for strikes.

The two biggest things that came out of this minor-league start were that Pettitte felt like he had his legs under him and after the start, he felt really good.

"This was a short sample, a short outing, and feel like maybe I didn't get a chance to throw some of the pitches that I would have liked to throw because I'm getting some guys out in early counts," Pettitte said. "But all-in-all I feel real comfortable with everything."

Pettitte is scheduled to likely to make his next start on Sunday, again with Class A Tampa.

He had already pitched a scoreless inning for the Yankees in their spring training finale against the Mets on Wednesday, so getting three innings out of Pettitte is another step in the right direction for 2012.

In all likelihood, May 1 still sounds like a very reasonable target date for Pettitte, who signed for a one-year, $2.5 million minor league deal back on March 16.

In his next minor league appearance, Pettitte expects to throw roughly around 50 pitches and will try to use more of his arsenal to get himself even more stretched out.

So far, so good for Pettitte, even if it's two brief appearances.

However, if they can get the Andy Pettitte that has won more than 200 games and has 19 postseason wins, then the Yankees rotation is that much better because he will solidify it.

Stay tuned, Yankees Universe.