“If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize,” Pettitte said in a statement, his first public comments since the report was released Thursday.

According to the report, Brian McNamee, Pettitte’s former trainer, told Mitchell that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone on “two to four occasions” in 2002 while Pettitte was recovering from an elbow injury.

In a statement released by his agent, Randy Hendricks, Pettitte said he tried the human growth hormone for “two days” because he believed it would speed his recovery.

“I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible,” Pettitte said. “For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone. Though it was not against baseball rules, I was not comfortable with what I was doing, so I stopped.”

Human growth hormone was not banned by Major League Baseball until before the 2005 season, and a reliable test for H.G.H. is still not available.

Although he admitted to using H.G.H., Pettitte said he never used steroids.

“Everything else written or said about me knowingly using illegal drugs is nonsense, wrong and hurtful,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for baseball and have always tried to live my life in a way that would be honorable. I wasn’t looking for an edge; I was looking to heal.”

Pettitte had previously denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Last year, The Los Angeles Times reported that Pettitte was among the players the former Yankee Jason Grimsley said used performance-enhancing drugs in a federal affidavit.

“I haven’t done anything,” Pettitte said on Oct. 1, 2006. “I guess reports are saying I’ve used performance-enhancing drugs. I’ve never used any drugs to enhance my performance in baseball before. I don’t know what else to say except to say it’s embarrassing my name would be out there.”