Yankees shut out Red Sox behind Cam Schlittler; Paul Goldschmidt homers for lone run
Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler follows through against the Boston Red Sox during the second inning at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
And then there are the times you can predict baseball, Suzyn.
Such as having a decent idea of what Cam Schlittler will do when he sees hitters wearing the uniforms of the Boston Red Sox.
The hard-throwing righthander, who grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts, as a Red Sox fan, seemingly has made it his career mission to make things as miserable on his hometown team as possible.
That again was the case Friday night as Schlittler allowed two hits and struck out eight in 5 2⁄3 innings in a 1-0 win over Boston in front of 43,476 at the Stadium.
“I think the division’s wide open,” Schlittler said after the Yankees stayed within four games of the AL East-leading Rays and inched three games ahead of the Red Sox for the league’s top wild-card spot. “Tampa’s got a couple of games on us, Boston’s right behind us. I think we separate ourselves from Boston this weekend and put ourselves in a good spot and we have a really big series against Tampa down the road [Sept. 22-24]. So it’s wide open.”
Schlittler, backed by Paul Goldschmidt’s 430-foot home run in the third inning, improved to 12-6 with a 2.09 ERA. He was not as sharp as he had been in many of his previous starts, matching a season high with five walks. His fifth-inning strikeout of Nick Sogard gave him 200 strikeouts this season.
The Yankees (76-58) stayed four games behind the AL East-leading Rays and inched three games ahead of the Red Sox (73-61) for the league’s top wild-card spot. That is significant because, as of now, the Yankees would play the Red Sox in the best-of-three Wild Card Round — as they did last year — and are battling to earn home-field advantage for that series. The season series is tied at 5-5, and the final three games at the Stadium this weekend will determine the tiebreaker if the two teams finish with the same record.
“A great win,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Schlittler starred in the deciding third game of the 2025 Wild Card Series at the Stadium, striking out 12 in eight scoreless innings. He entered Friday night’s start 1-1 with a 0.96 ERA in three previous starts this season against the Red Sox.
The Red Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth and had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh but went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.
The Yankees, who loaded the bases with one out in the sixth but did not score, went 0-for-4 and stranded six. Leadoff hitter Goldschmidt hit his 17th home run and No. 2 hitter Ben Rice doubled and singled, but the final seven spots in the order went 0-for-19.
Lefthander Brent Headrick took over for Schlittler with one on and two outs in the sixth. He walked pinch hitter Jahmai Jones and allowed an infield single by pinch hitter Eli White to load the bases. Facing his third straight righthanded pinch hitter, Headrick got Andrew Monasterio to fly out to rightfield.
Rice led off the sixth with a single and Heliot Ramos and Trent Grisham drew one-out walks to load the bases against Red Sox starter Patrick Sandoval. Former Yankee Greg Weissert then got George Lombard Jr. to line out to shallow rightfield and Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out.
With one out in the seventh, Ceddanne Rafaela singled and Wilyer Abreu hit a ground-rule double to rightfield to put runners at second and third. Willson Contreras then lifted a fly ball to medium left. Cody Bellinger made the catch and delivered a one-hop strike to Austin Wells, who tagged out Rafaela for the third out.
“One of the defensive plays of the year,” Boone said.
The Yankees held a 15 1⁄2- game lead over Boston entering their four-game series in late June at Fenway Park. The Red Sox won all four games to begin a 32-5 streak that brought them within a half-game of the Yankees on Aug. 7, but they have never pulled even.
“Any win is a great win,” Bellinger said. “And that was a good one for sure.”
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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