FORT MYERS, Fla. -- By the time the Yankees' bus pulled up to City of Palms Park on Monday, Carl Pavano was already in the building and in an anxious frame of mind, having driven down from Tampa ahead of the team-provided transportation.
Manager Joe Torre arrived at the complex, found his vehicularly-challenged right-hander and kiddingly let out a heavy exhale of relief. Pavano's August 2006 traffic accident has not been forgotten, but it apparently has become a valid topic to joke about in the Yankees' clubhouse.
"It was a nice ride just to clear my head a little bit and get down here before the bus," Pavano said. "Me and [Torre] had a little bit of a laugh about that, like, 'Whew.' I figured I'd get here and let them know that I'm all right."
Pavano, 31, returned from an eight-day layoff to throw three innings in the Yankees' 7-5 loss to the Red Sox on Monday, his second appearance of the spring.
Concentrating mostly on his fastball and building arm strength, Pavano allowed two runs and four hits, throwing 48 pitches (29 for strikes).
"He looked like he was free and easy," Torre said. "That's the best part about it. I didn't care about results as much as I did about how he pitched. He looked like he was very aggressive and there was a lot of life in his body. He felt good."
Though he allowed a two-run double to Red Sox backup catcher Doug Mirabelli, Pavano said he was able to gain some confidence from shutting down Boston's biggest bats.
David Ortiz grounded out and lined to right in his two at-bats against Pavano, while Manny Ramirez was caught looking at a called third strike in the second inning. Pavano's final pitch of the evening recorded his second strikeout, ringing up J.D. Drew.
"They've got a tough lineup, and it doesn't get any easier when the season starts," Pavano said. "It's always nice facing this team. You know that their one-through-nine is probably as good as it gets.
"As the season goes, they're going to have their hits. You can't keep them in their cages all of the time. They're going to get out and get their runs and their hits. It's just about damage control."
During the trip of more than two hours, Pavano said he was hit by a flood of memories. Originally drafted by the Red Sox in 1994, Pavano broke in with Fort Myers in the Gulf Coast League and recalled pitching off that very same mound as he was trying to establish his career.
Now that Pavano is attempting to prove that he can be a healthy and reliable piece of the Yankees rotation, it's fair to point to what Pavano eventually became after that summer 13 years ago.
Catcher Todd Pratt faced Pavano numerous times in the National League when the right-hander was at his finest for the Florida Marlins, and Pratt believes that Pavano can return to those levels of performance.
"It's sad that New York hasn't seen the best of Carl," Pratt said. "I definitely faced him many times. You talked about A.J. [Burnett] and Josh [Beckett], and he was as dominating as those two guys when he was at his best. I saw some of the stuff today that I saw in the past. There just needs to be more consistency."
