Yankees beat Red Sox behind rookie Cam Schlittler's gem, will play Blue Jays in AL Division Series
Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler reacts after the 7th inning against the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series on Thursday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Yes, he Cam.
And, yes, the Yankees did.
Behind rookie flamethrower Cam Schlittler, 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 one since 2004 — with a 4-0 victory over the Red Sox Thursday night in the deciding Game 3 of the AL Wild Card series in front of an earsplitting sellout crowd of 48,833 at the Stadium.
The Yankees, who got 12 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings from Schlittler, a franchise postseason record for a rookie — an even more impressive feat given the 24-year-old started the season with Double-A Somerset — move on to the Division Series where they will play the Blue Jays.
Game 1 is Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
Schlittler, pitch efficient throughout, allowed five hits and walked none. He got the Red Sox 1-2-3 in the eighth, an inning that featured third baseman Ryan McMahon toppling head-first into the Red Sox dugout while catching Jarren Duran’s foul pop and Schlittler, on his 107th and final pitch — a 98-mph fastball — getting Trevor Story to ground out. Schlittler, a seventh-round pick of the Yankees in 2022 who grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Mass., allowed just one baserunner to reach second base.
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 back to the 2004 ALCS. They started their own rookie Thursday.
That was 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, the ball falling between rightfielder Wilyer Abreu, second baseman Romy Gonzalez and centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Giancarlo Stanton walked and Ben Rice, getting his first start of the season against a lefthander, struck out for the second straight at-bat. But Amed Rosario, a .298 career hitter against lefties — including .302 this season — ripped a changeup to left for an RBI single that drove in Stanton to make it 1-0. Anthony Volpe, 3-for-7 in the the series entering Game 3, continued his early-career trend of being a postseason performer by lashing an RBI single to right to make it 2-0. Austin Wells, who had the biggest at-bat of the night Wednesday when he drove in Jazz Chisholm Jr. with a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning, fell behind 0-and-2 before battling back to a full count. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, the catcher striped a grounder off the glove of Nathaniel Lowe at first, the ball skipping into the outfield for a two-run single that made it 4-0.
Schlittler allowed two hits in the fifth — a leadoff single to Lowe and a two-out single to Gonzalez — but struck out Carlos Narvaez, Abreu and Duran, all swinging at 99-mph fastballs to give him eight through five innings.
Schlittler, 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA after the Yankees plugged him into the rotation hole produced by the injured Clark Schmidt, started the game throwing heat.
Duran swung and missed at Schlittler’s first pitch of the night, a 98-mph fastball. He did the same on the second pitch, this one 99-mph. Duran took two balls before sending a broken-bat liner, on a 97-mph cutter, to second. Story popped a 99-mph fastball to Rice at first. Alex Bregman popped one deep into foul ground where Rice saw the ball pop out of his glove for an error. But Schlittler struck out the long-time Astro looking at a 100-mph fastball to end the 14-pitch inning.
Early needed just eight pitches to set down the Yankees in the bottom half. He struck out Trent Grisham looking at a 94-mph fastball, got Aaron Judge to fly softly to right and Bellinger to ground to short.
Masataka Yoshida, who hit Yankees pitching hard all regular season, had the Red Sox first hit of the night, a sharp liner to left leading off the second.
But Schlittler stranded him, striking out Rafaela swinging at a 99-mph sinker, Lowe looking at a 100-mph fastball and gettingNarvaez to ground to short, putting him at 36 pitches through two innings.
Schlittler retired eight straight after Yoshida’s second-inning single, a streak Yoshida ended himself with two outs in the fourth on a liner to left. Schlittler got Rafaela to ground to second for the third out and the Yankees’ offense put up its crooked number in the bottom half.
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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