Venditte chooses his side

Pitcher hopes to throw right and left for A’s this season.

Pat Venditte was just 7 when he got his first two-handed glove.

The glove, a Greg Harris model, simply opened up the possibility to him. Greg A. Harris, a journeyman pitcher in the 1980s and 90s, was a righthander who threw just once as a lefty, in the final game of his career in 1995, although he owned a two-way glove and had felt for years that he could be effective from both sides.

“I don’t know that I threw very well from both sides at the time,” Venditte, a Harris fan as a kid, said at Oakland’s camp in Mesa, Ariz. “But I liked the glove.”

Venditte signed with the Yankees out of Creighton in 2008; he has been allowed to pitch both left-handed and right-handed after his freshman year at Creighton. And as he was coming up through the minors, Minor League Baseball and its umpires developed the “Pat Venditte Rule.”

It allows switch-pitchers to pitch either right-handed or lefthanded to any given batter, but once he throws from one side, he can only throw from that side Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka threw 35 pitches Sunday during his second session of the spring and reported no problems with his right elbow. until the batter is retired. He typically goes for whatever the platoon advantage is, left-handed against lefty hitters, right-handed against righties.

“I talked to him and he was getting me up to speed on the rule,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re all about versatility, so I told him he’d fit right in here.”

He played seven years in the Yankees organization, making it to Triple-A last year for the final four months of the season, going 2-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 26 games, two of them starts. He signed with the A’s in November.

Melvin said he saw him throw in Mesa, Ariz., a few days ago, left-hand- ed, and added that the club has to adapt so that Venditte gets all the work he needs.

Yankees: Masahiro Tanaka pumped up the volume a bit in his second bullpen session of the spring and still reported no issues with his right elbow.

Tanaka threw 35 pitches Sunday at New York’s camp in Tampa, up from the 21 he threw Thursday. He missed 2 1/2 months last season rehabbing a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Mets: Pitcher Matt Harvey, who missed all of last season rehabbing from elbow-ligament replacement surgery, expects to face hitters Thursday or Friday.

Saturday’s Games Sunday’s Games ■ (At) Flyers 3, Capitals 2: Michael Del Zotto scored late in the third. Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds also had goals for Philadelphia. ■ Bruins 6, (at) Blackhawks 2: Boston’s Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring with his 200th goal. Reilly Smith had a goal and Loui Eriksson, Milan Lucic, Gregory Campbell and Dougie Hamilton also scored. ■ (At) Penguins 5, Panthers 1: Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 shots, and Patric Hornqvist and Evgeni Malkin each picked up two goals and an assist. ■ Predators 2, (at) Sabres 1 (SO): Filip Forsberg scored the decisive goal in the fourth round. ■ Canucks 4, (at) Islanders 0: Eddie Lack made 27 saves for the shutout, and Zack Kassian, Radim Vrbata and Bo Horvat scored for Vancouver. ■ (At) Avalanche 5, Lightning 4: Nathan MacKinnon had the first hat trick of his young career. ■ (At) Rangers 4, Blue Jackets 3 (SO): Rick Nash scored the winning goal in a shootout. Martin St. Louis had two goals for the Rangers. ■ (At) Wild 6, Stars 2: Zach Parise led Minnesota’s six-goal third period with two goals, while Mikael Granlund had one goal and two assists. Jason Spezza scored twice for Dallas, which has lost three in a row. Late Saturday ■ Outdoor clash: Before 70,205 at Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, the L.A. Kings spoiled San Jose’s outdoor party with a 2-1 victory.

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