"Physically, for me, it obviously is a little concern, just seeing how my body is going to feel on that short rest, because I'm just not sure at my age," said Pettitte, 37. "Also, mentally, it was a grind for me the other night."

Pettitte gave up four runs in six innings in the Yankees' 8-5, Game 3 win in Philadelphia on Saturday. Pettitte won the game - Phillies starter Cole Hamels got hammered - but Pettitte left it hoping that next time out he would be better.

"I couldn't get the ball to go where I wanted it to go," Pettitte said. "Mechanically, I felt a little bit off, just a click off. My release point didn't feel great. It was a battle to get the ball inside, and move it around like I wanted to."

So, coming off that outing, there is tonight.

Pettitte yesterday told manager Joe Girardi he felt able to start tonight.

Burnett told Girardi the same thing . . . and lasted two innings, gave up six runs and took the loss in Game 5. It was the first time Burnett had started on 3 days' rest in the postseason.

Pettitte has started five times in the playoffs on 3 days' rest and is 3-1 with a 2.80 earned run average. So what, said Pettitte.

"I don't even remember the last time I went on 3 days' rest," he said. "I know I went on 3 days' rest in the World Series against the Marlins, and I know that was a good outing."

In fact, Pettitte came within an out of a complete game against Florida in Game 2 of that 2003 World Series. He allowed one unearned run.

And he was 31.

Coked up

And kind of funny.

Coke, the Yankees' No. 2 lefty reliever, is a 27-year-old rookie. In the seventh inning of Game 5, he allowed solo homers to lefthanded hitters Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez that made a 6-2 game 8-2 - runs that resonated louder at game's end, since the Yanks cut it to 8-6.

"I felt like I was throwing pretty good. I made two mistakes," said Coke, who added, "I'd prefer to not have done that."

Doing that as a Yankee makes a pretty loud sound, Coke realizes. As more than 100 media members swarmed through the Yankees' clubhouse yesterday, an off day, Coke continued to marvel at the spectacle . . . not all that unusual, considering the club.

He's from Sonora, Calif., a mining town near the Sierra Nevada mountains with a population of less than 5,000.

Or, roughly, the traveling press corps of the Yankees.

"This is the weird part to me. Being from a small town, we don't get anything like this," Coke said. "You're happy if the newspaper guy shows up at all. You're really happy if the newspaper guy shows up at all."

Stripes