Pettitte Turns 40 and Turns His Attention to Facing the Nationals WASHINGTON - A third member of the Yankees turned 40 on Friday as Andy Pettitte joined Raul Ibanez and Mariano Rivera in their fifth decades. Manager Joe Girardi played with Pettitte on the Yankees from 1996 to 1999, and is only seven years his senior. "As long as he's around, I still feel young," Girardi said. It's really pretty amazing. Time goes fast, it's hard to believe that he's 40 years old. Pettitte will make his first start as a quadragenarian Saturday afternoon against the Washington Nationals, looking to continue his strong start to the season. Perhaps it is the year off, but Pettitte is not pitching like a man in his 40s. He carries a 3-2 record into the game, with a 2.81 earned run average in six starts since returning from a one-year retirement. Before Friday's game, Pettitte discussed how the year off has helped re-energize him physically and mentally for his 17th season. "To get away from it and then start working out the way I did in December, it's almost given me a fresh start again," Pettitte said. I'm loving working out, I'm loving training and doing it again. I did it a handful of times after I retired until I started working out again. I think for my mind and my body, it was good for me. Pettitte announced in the middle of spring training that he was returning, but he was a month behind the rest of the pitchers and made only one appearance in spring training. When the team broke camp, Pettitte stayed behind and continued to get in shape. "I didn't like that at all," he said. I like to be with the team. He pitched in minor league games before making his return to the Yankees on May 13 at Yankee Stadium. While the rest of the Yankees starters have made 12 or 13 starts, Pettitte has made only half that many. But he thinks that Girardi and General Manager Brian Cashman are perfectly happy that he got a belated start. "I think they were concerned with my health and didn't want me to log too many innings," Pettitte said. But for me it's important to go to spring training and be with the team if I was going to be here at all. Breather for Cano Robinson Cano finally got a day off on Friday. Cano had played in all 62 games heading into Friday's matchup with the Nationals, and even though he is showing no signs of fatigue, Joe Girardi wanted to make sure he gets some rest. Jayson Nix was in the starting lineup playing second base and batting eighth. Girardi called Cano's day off a pre-emptive rest, taking advantage of Thursday's day off to give Cano a breather for a couple of days in a row. "He's played almost every inning for us," Girardi said. Cano said he felt fine, and was out for early batting practice hitting balls deep into the right-field bleachers. In his first 62 games Cano was batting .294 with 11 home runs and 30 runs batted in. His .522 slugging percentage is second on the team to Curtis Granderson's .525. Back for a Day The former trainer Gene Monahan, who retired last year after 39 years, he was with the team longer than this; trainer from 1973-2011 rejoined the team for the series Friday. Steve Donohue, Monahan's longtime assistant who succeeded him, is attending his daughter's high school graduation on Saturday.