Yankees' Ben Rice homers twice, Cam Schlittler dominates Red Sox in Game 1 of Wild Card Series
To Bucky “Bleeping” Dent and Aaron “Bleeping” Boone — whose epic postseason homers immortalized them as forever enemies of the rabid New England fan base known as Red Sox Nation — add Cam “Bleeping” Schlittler.
But instead of breaking New England hearts at the plate, the latter continues to torture those fans, and his hometown Red Sox, from the mound.
The righthander, who grew up a part of Red Sox Nation in the Boston suburb of Walpole, Massachusetts, on Tuesday night added another chapter to the one he started last year in the postseason.
The presumed American League Cy Young Award winner allowed two singles and a walk with 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings in leading the Yankees to a 9-0 beatdown of the Red Sox in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series in front of an on-its-feet-throughout sellout crowd of 48,437 at the Stadium.
“Incredible,” catcher Austin Wells said of Schlittler, who has allowed no runs, seven hits and a walk with 22 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings in two postseason starts against the Red Sox.
George Lombard Jr. had three hits in his postseason debut and Wells had two hits and two RBIs -- a two-out RBI single in the second that began the scoring and a sacrifice fly.
But it was Ben Rice, another son of New England who grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, and was coming off a 41-homer season, who starred on offense.
Getting his whacks in at the area as well, Rice homered twice, including a 408-foot grand slam into the Yankees' bullpen with two outs in the eighth that gave the Yankees a 9-0 lead and turned the proceedings into garbage time. Rice, who had a team-high 97 RBIs this season, also had a 423-foot solo homer into Monument Park, a double and an RBI single, driving in six runs.
“Yeah, I’ll remember getting a ‘W’ versus the Red Sox. There’s nothing better than that,” said Rice, who, despite where he grew up, was a Yankees fan. “I’ll remember Cam going out there and just being lights out, like he always is. It was just an awesome night. Great way to kick off the series.”
Max Fried will oppose Boston's Sonny Gray on Wednesday night in Game 2 as the Yankees try to close out the best-of-three series and move on to St. Petersburg to face the top-seeded Rays.
“The job’s not done,” said Schlittler who, after a one-out single in the first by Adley Rutschman that capped a 10-pitch at-bat, retired 13 straight and heard "MVP!” chants throughout his outing. He left the game with one on and one out in the seventh, having thrown a career-high 117 pitches, and Paul Blackburn induced a double-play ball to end the inning.
Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle, coming off a season in which he went 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA, including 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA in two starts against the Yankees, allowed one run and five hits in 4 2⁄3 innings Tuesday. Boston manager Chad Tracy pulled the plug early on Tolle and ended up getting burned by his bullpen. Lefthander Erik Miller allowed Rice's homer in the fifth that made it 2-0.
The story of the night predictably was Schlittler -- predictable because he seemingly has made it a mission to torment his boyhood team and the sizable contingent of passionate fans who follow them.
It began last year in the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series when, drawing inspiration from some ugliness on social media directed toward his family, his mother in particular, by Red Sox fans, Schlittler struck out 12 in eight innings in a 4-0 victory.
He followed that up this regular season by going 2-1 with a 0.74 ERA in four starts vs. Boston. That sterling record was part of a 14-6, 1.95 regular season that is sure to net him the Cy Young Award.
Though not quite as electric Tuesday night as he was in last year’s Game 3, he was plenty good.
Schlittler is known for a repertoire that includes three types of virtually unhittable fastballs, and he called on those plenty, as 85 of his 117 pitches were four-seam fastballs, sinkers or cutters. But he mixed in a season-high 32 curveballs (27%), way up from his average of using that pitch 10% of the time during the regular season.
“He’s throwing hard. He also had a good curveball today that you know it’s there, but he used it a little bit more often,” Tracy said. “He landed it if he wanted to for strikes. He was able to get it beneath for swing and miss. We weren’t able to do much with him.”
Though the Red Sox were successful in driving up his pitch count, Schlittler made it into the seventh, departing to a thunderous ovation after allowing a one-out single by Wilyer Abreu.
Schlittler was serenaded with more “MVP!” chants as he headed to the dugout.
“I mean, we’ve already got an MVP in this locker room. He’s won three of them,” Schlittler said almost sheepishly, referencing Aaron Judge, who will will not play in the series because of a right calf strain. “I wouldn’t say I am an MVP.”
His teammates, and certainly the sellout crowd, clearly would disagree.
And Red Sox Nation, no doubt, has other descriptions.
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.
