HARRISON, N.Y. -- Billy Andrade said he felt like the New York Yankees pitching staff during the second round of the Barclays Classic, and that’s hard for a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan to admit.

“You think you've got it going pretty good and next thing you know you give up all these runs and then all of a sudden you win the game at the end,” Andrade said.

The New Englander could take solace in the fact that the Red Sox snapped a four-game losing streak to their archrivals with a 9-3 victory Thursday night. And that was almost as pleasing as his round of 70 Friday that left him two strokes off the lead.

Sure, it was a tad erratic. Andrade opened with three straight birdies on Westchester Country Club’s difficult back nine only to give them right back with a trio of bogeys that began at the 15th hole. Then there was that double bogey on No. 4, sandwiched between a trio of birdies, to complicate his life.

The end result, though, was enough to put a smile on the face of the affable Andrade, who has a 36-hole total of 6 under. It’s his best start since he opened the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic with a pair of 68s in his first tournament of the season.

What Andrade liked best about the way he played on Friday was the way he held the round together when it showed signs of getting away from him.

“It’s not a whole lot of fun not being in control,” he said. “To come back today was great. I feel really happy about that, and again, I like my position. When I usually get in these positions, I'm usually sharper with my game. I don't make those stupid mental mistakes that I've been doing lately.”

Tee to green, Andrade says, he’s been solid this year. It’s just that his putter, normally one of the most dependable clubs in his bag, has betrayed him. This week, though, the man who ranks 119th in putting on TOUR is tied for 18th in that category.

“I've been playing so well from tee to green and getting nothing out of it,” Andrade said. “It's more demoralizing when you two-putt, two-putt, throw in a three-putt, (and) you walk away shooting a 73 or 74, and when you add them up you should be shooting 65 or 66.

“That's the difference between winning and not winning, making cuts and missing cuts, playing well and not well, is your conversion rate.”

Andrade has gone back and forth between a conventional and claw grip this year, but has settled on the latter this week. He also has two new putters, which seem to be working wonders at Westchester.

Andrade was ready for the change after hitting 31 of 36 greens at sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open but missing out by two strokes. He played in actor Joe Pesci’s pro-am on Tuesday and went straight to the Mizuno truck, where Andrade joked they made two putters in five minutes “because they had to get to the Yankees-Red Sox game.”

Andrade won his second TOUR event -- in as many weeks, in fact -- at Westchester in 1991, and he has three other top-5 finishes in 18 starts. But he doesn’t feel that gives him an edge as he enters the weekend two strokes behind Vijay Singh and David Howell.

“It didn't seem that long ago, and then, at times, it seems like when the hell was that?,” admitted the slender 42-year-old, who joked that he’s a lot longer than he was 15 years ago because if all the “steroids I’ve been taking.

“Yeah, I won this tournament and I was a champion here, but that's not going to make any difference this weekend. I've still got to go out and play solid golf, great golf and get the ball in the hole somehow, and when it's over maybe it's my week.”

Andrade hasn’t won since the 2000 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas. At the same time, though, he knows fortunes can change in a heartbeat -- he only has to look at recent champions like Tim Herron, who ended a seven-year victory drought at the Bank of America Colonial, and FedEx St. Jude Classic winner Jeff Maggert, who won there for the first time since 1999.

Billy Andrade is 12th in the field in putts per GIR this week in New York. (Greenwood/WireImage)

“You ask yourself, hey, am I ever going to win again, is this going to happen?” said Andrade, who went seven years between his second and third TOUR wins. “I feel like I've had a couple opportunities where it slipped away and didn't convert. And then you see that, and it's inspiring to say, Timmy Herron did it, I can do it. Jeff Maggert did it, I can do it. Others have done it, why can't I?

“That’s what's so fickle about this game. You can be absolutely pitiful one week and all of a sudden next week something clicks and you have a chance to win, and that's what happens.”

Regardless of whether Andrade wins his fifth TOUR title here -- or anywhere else, for that matter -- the former Wake Forest All-American is happy with his career, and with his life.

“I never have been a person that has said, okay, by X year I hope to have X amount of money or cars or wins or success,” he said. “I've just kind of gone through this life and kind of lived it and had a great time.

“I have a great wife, I've got two healthy children. This game has brought me opportunity and things I never imagined, and the people I've met and this whole dream has been pretty cool. You know, I'd love to sit here and say, God, I wish I had won a couple majors and I wish I had won 20 tournaments instead of winning four. But you know what? You can't dwell on the past. You can't think about what-ifs.

“Like him or hate him, I saw (John McEnroe) on a talk show one night, and they were talking about his past and the outbursts and all the times he's made a total (jerk) of himself, and he said I can't worry about the past, all I can worry about is the today and the future. I think that's a great attitude. …

“Yeah, I'd love to sit here and say, yeah, I've won more titles. But I've tried, I just haven't been good enough, I guess. But I have no problem with that because when it's all said and done, when I'm done, I can say I gave it my all, and that's all you want to do is be true to yourself.”