Yankees beat Red Sox behind rookie Cam Schlittler's gem, will play Blue Jays in AL Division Series
Yes, he Cam.
And yes, the Yankees did.
Behind rookie flamethrower Cam Schlittler, who was completely unfazed and completely dominant on the biggest stage of his young career, the Yankees took out a season-long nemesis — as well as a postseason nemesis since 2004 — with a 4-0 victory over the Red Sox on Thursday night in the deciding Game 3 of their AL Wild Card Series in front of an earsplitting sellout crowd of 48,833 at the Stadium.
Schlittler became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw at least eight innings and record at least 12 strikeouts without allowing a walk in a postseason game. He set a franchise postseason record for a rookie with his 12 strikeouts and gave up five hits.
“Cam’s one of one,” Aaron Judge said. “Man, he’s something special. I’ve seen a lot of guys come up here, and even veteran guys we trade for come up here, and the moment be too big. It wasn’t for him.”
Schlittler became the third pitcher in Yankees history to throw at least eight innings in a winner-take-all game, joining Ralph Terry (who threw a shutout in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series) and Johnny Kucks (who threw a shutout in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series).
At what point did he feel fully in control and unstoppable? “Honestly, before the game with the bullpen I had out there,” he said. “I mean, an epic environment, really. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just wanted to make sure I was taking it all in. Definitely a dream to play Boston in the playoffs and end their season.”
The Yankees will face the Blue Jays in the best-of-five Division Series.
Schlittler got the Red Sox 1-2-3 in the eighth, an inning that featured third baseman Ryan McMahon toppling headfirst into the Red Sox dugout while catching Jarren Duran’s foul pop, which had Aaron Boone starting a dead sprint from the first-base dugout to check on his player before McMahon quickly popped back up. “I thought he was dead,” Austin Wells said with a smile.
On his 107th and final pitch — a 98-mph fastball — Schlittler got Trevor Story to ground out and walked off the field to his loudest ovation yet.
Schlittler, a seventh-round pick of the Yankees in 2022 who grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Massachusetts, and started the season with Double-A Somerset, allowed only one runner to reach second base.
“We needed to be perfect tonight, because he was perfect,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The stuff is outstanding. He was under control. That was electric. That was electric.”
Schlittler, who took over for the injured Clarke Schmidt in the rotation in early July and went 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts, impressed his big-league teammates from Day 1 with a quiet confidence — but without a hint of arrogance that might rub veterans the wrong way — and, Giancarlo Stanton said, his “demeanor” on the mound.
“How calm and under control he is,” Stanton said. “It never seems like a moment is too big or too fast for him.”
Schlittler said “I got really good sleep” on the eve of the start and that “I wasn’t too worried about it.” He even told Andy Pettitte, MLB’s all-time leader in postseason victories and now a Yankees team adviser, “I wasn’t going to let them beat me.”
The Red Sox, who won the season series from the Yankees, 9-4, took Game 1 of this series and had beaten the Yankees in the postseason each of the last three times the long-time adversaries faced off, dating to the 2004 ALCS (in which the Yankees won the first three games).
The Red Sox started their own rookie Thursday, lefthander Connelly Early, who matched Schlittler until the Yankees erupted for four runs in the fourth.
Cody Bellinger led off with a flared double to short right-center, with the ball falling between rightfielder Wilyer Abreu, second baseman Romy Gonzalez and centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela. After Stanton walked and Ben Rice struck out, Amed Rosario — a .298 career hitter against lefties, including .302 this season — ripped a changeup to left for an RBI single and a 1-0 lead
Anthony Volpe lashed an RBI single to right to make it 2-0, and on the ninth pitch of his at-bat, Wells hit a grounder off the glove of first basaeman Nathaniel Lowe, who was charged with a two-run error that made it 4-0 — more than enough for Schlittler.
“He makes it look so easy, it’s crazy,” Volpe said. “Going into this game and going into this series, knowing we had him as our Game 3 starter, that feeling alone was so comforting, and I think that says just as much as what he actually went out and did, because everyone had the confidence in him going to bed last night that it was going to be a mismatch.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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