BRONX, NY — Yankees ace Cam Schlittler loves pitching against his hometown Red Sox and even without his best command Friday night, the 25-year-old right-hander still kept Boston off Yankee Stadium’s scoreboard.
Pitching through a ton of traffic in the Yankees’ 1-0 series opening win, Schlittler recorded eight strikeouts, with two hits and five walks over 5.2 innings. Add a catcher’s interference into the mix and he totaled out to 102 pitches, 63 for strikes.
“Walks are obviously frustrating,” he said in the postgame. “I feel like I just beat myself there a little bit, but being able to limit the damage and trust the defense behind me, they were able to bail me out.”
After three scoreless frames from Schlittler, the Yankees’ offense found a spark with Paul Goldschmidt hitting a go-ahead solo homer off LHP Patrick Sandoval in the bottom of the third.
Despite the HR, Sandoval was solid, tossing 5.1 innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts—more than enough to keep Boston in the fight.
The Red Sox did have some momentum building up in the fifth, but Ceddanne Rafaela got doubled off by center fielder Trent Grisham on a routine line drive with runners on first and second.
Right before Rafaela’s fifth inning mishap—Schlittler recorded his 200th strikeout of the year to become the fourth youngest Yankee ever to record 200 Ks in a season—trailing Al Downing (23 in 1964), Luis Severino (23 in 2017) and Bob Turley (24 in 1955).
“I wouldn’t say it was necessarily a goal,” he said. “I think the goal just based off the postseason last year is obviously to win a championship and it’s a great accolade to get. Obviously, not many guys do it. So, yeah, it’s a great feeling, but there’s a lot of ball left to play.”
After Brent Headrick closed the sixth out to end Schlittler’s night—the seventh inning is when the Bronx became more of an adventure with Paul Blackburn on the mound and Cody Bellinger nailing Rafaela at the plate to keep it 1-0 Yankees.
David Bednar nonchalantly shut the door in the ninth on 12 pitches, recording his 31st save of the season which now gives the Yanks’ a three game cushion on the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card picture and a deficit of four games behind the Rays for the AL East division crown. .
“If we separate ourselves from Boston this weekend, we’ve got a really big (four-game) series against Tampa down the road,” Schlittler said. “So it’s wide open.”
Schlittler (12-6, 2.09 ERA, the lowest ERA in the AL) leads MLB this season with 20 starts of giving up one run or less.
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