David Lennon: Yankees' Cam Schlittler just keeps on impressing
Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler delivers against the Mets during the first inning at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The most discussed name before Friday night’s Subway Series opener was someone who wasn’t scheduled to pitch this weekend.
And was hurt.
That would be Max Fried, who was diagnosed with what the Yankees described as a bone bruise inside his $218 million left elbow, a serious-sounding affliction that he and the team characterized as relatively good news.
Three hours later, once Cam Schlitter took the mound, nobody was fretting about the Yankees’ injured ace anymore. That’s because Schlittler owns that title now, along with the designation of being New York’s most dominant pitcher by a long shot.
The Mets proved to be little more than a speed bump Friday night for what is fast developing into a potential Cy Young Award season for Schlittler, who allowed two hits and struck out nine in 6 2⁄3 innings in leading the Yankees to a 5-2 victory before a crowd of 40,004 at Citi Field.
Aaron Boone didn’t offer any timetable on Fried’s return, but his absence isn’t expected to be short, and a month-plus seems like the minimum. As long as Schlittler stays upright — and is able to keep shrugging off those bullets back at the mound — the Yankees won’t need to worry about filling that Fried void.
Schlittler, as you might expect, wasn’t all that concerned about the newfound responsibility either.
“Not really,” he said. “We have two of our big dogs that were out — Carlos [Rodon] is back and Gerrit [Cole] is close. So as unfortunate as the situation is, it’ll be good to get Gerrit back in there and hopefully the staff will continue to dominate.”
Schlittler stole the spotlight in his Subway Series debut while continuing to polish his eye-popping stats. He kept his MLB-leading ERA (among qualified starters) at 1.35 and trimmed his WHIP to 0.78, second only to Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes (0.64). Schlittler also is third in strikeouts (68) with the third-fewest walks (nine).
“Par for the course,” Boone said. “He’s throwing the ball incredibly well, filling up the strike zone. Didn’t quite finish off the seventh inning, but another one just in command and control of the start.”
Because of Schlittler’s brilliance, the game never seemed as close as the final score. His fastball repeatedly topped out at 99 mph and he leaned on his usual five-pitch arsenal, registering 19 swings-and-misses.
The only hit the Mets could muster through the first six innings was Brett Baty’s sharp line-drive single to rightfield with two outs in the second.
Otherwise, he issued a two-out walk to Marcus Semien in the fifth and retired 18 of the first 20 batters before Juan Soto homered to open the seventh.
“I don’t think I had my A-plus stuff,” Schlittler said. “But I was able to get in the zone and kind of dominate from there. I think I did a really good job of just mixing pitches and then the guys behind me making some good plays.”
With his pitch count climbing, Schlittler didn’t survive the seventh. He got two outs, the second on a strikeout of MJ Melendez, but a seven-pitch walk to Baty ended his night.
The 106-pitch effort was his longest of the season, eclipsing the 97 from last Saturday’s start against the Brewers.
Soto’s blast to left-center came on an 0-and-2 pitch as Schlittler tried to shoot a third straight fastball by him at 97.5 mph. The difference? The first two rode the inside edge of the plate and the last heater got way too much middle.
The most damage the Mets did to Schlittler was literally using him for target practice. While they could barely touch his pitches, the Mets dinged Schlittler twice with batted balls, but they couldn’t knock him out of the game that way.
In the third inning, Luis Torrens belted a grounder off his heel, but the Yankees got the 1-6-3 forceout. After Soto’s homer, Mark Vientos punched another ground ball off Schlittler’s foot that became a 1-4-3.
On the same night that Mets starter Clay Holmes suffered a fractured right fibula on Spencer Jones’ 111.1-mph drive, Schlittler emerged unscathed.
“The first one that hit him pretty hard hit the bottom of his shoe, so it didn’t hurt at all,” Boone said. “I was joking with him out there; we need to get him an L screen. We got to figure something out.”
Said Schlittler: “It’s tough. My left leg is taking a beating a little bit. Luckily today they weren’t too bad. Not much I can do about it. Just where the ball goes when they put it in play. I’d hope it stops. but it probably doesn’t look too likely.”
Schlittler was fine on both occasions, but it continued a strange trend after he was drilled on the back of the leg last Saturday.
The only other scary moment for Schlittler came in the fourth when he sprung off the mound to corral Vientos’ grounder toward the third-base line, then tumbled over in delivering the on-time throw to first. Schlittler stayed on the ground for a few moments as some of his teammates tried to stifle a laugh, but he clearly was OK as he continued to mow down the Mets.
“He makes a drama of it sometimes, too,” Boone jokingly said about the Schlittler flop.
Thanks to another Schlittler gem, the Yankees could afford to laugh afterward — unlike the team in the other clubhouse.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
