David Lennon: Even Cam Schlittler can't overcome Yankees' sloppy play and lack of offense
Cam Schlittler probably has never felt lonelier than he did Monday night while standing on the mound at Tropicana Field.
Sometimes doing most of the heavy lifting yourself is part of an ace's job description, and we’ve seen Schlittler rise to those occasions. He enjoys carrying the weight. Thrives on that responsibility.
But what happened during Game 2 of the Division Series was less about Schlittler succumbing to the Rays’ unyielding pressure and more to do with the Yankees sabotaging their presumptive Cy Young Award winner — whether it was in the field or at the plate.
The boxscore shows that Schlittler recorded 13 outs in the Yankees' 5-2 loss to the Rays. In reality, it felt like twice that number. The Yankees committed three errors during the Rays' first four at-bats of the game and forced Schlittler to work hard to limit the damage.
The Rays were MLB’s best-hitting team with runners in scoring position (.284) during the regular season, but Schlittler held them to 0-for-8 in those situations through the first three innings and limited them to a single run through four.
The best the Yankees could muster for Schlittler was the first of Ben Rice’s pair of home runs leading off the fourth. But after Schlittler mowed through the Rays in the bottom half on nine pitches, including his only two strikeouts of the night, they chased him in the fifth, again aided by the Yankees’ atrocious defense.
Tampa Bay tagged him for six hits and four runs, but only two were earned.
“Obviously, it starts with me,” Schlittler said. “I’ll be the first one to say that I didn’t do my job. But it didn’t seem like we really showed up today, and that’s what happens. They played really good baseball and took advantage of those opportunities.”
Schlittler showed up. He was the one on the mound, the one with his head spinning.
In the first inning alone, Ryan McMahon — who’s playing because of his defense — had a routine grounder glance of his glove, Jazz Chisholm Jr. recklessly threw a double-play pivot wildly to first and Austin Wells got nabbed for catcher’s interference. Chisholm barely avoided making it four errors in the Rays' first five at-bats, but George Lombard Jr. saved him by stabbing his poor throw to second and barely getting the forceout.
The Rays dented Schlittler for only one run in the first, but he wound up needing 19 pitches, a bad tone-setter for the rest of his abbreviated outing.
Every one of Schlitter’s 76 pitches seemingly was thrown under extreme duress, whether it was due to traffic on the basepaths or the pitcher wondering if he’d ever get another run. Both were valid fears.
Never before had the Yankees made three errors in one inning during a postseason game (not even in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series; that was two physical errors and a mental error). But it wasn’t just the official blunders. For a while, they were charged with five errors before one by Lombard was changed to a fielder's choice, and there were other misplays, too. The Rays made them look a step slow and a throw late for the entire game.
“It just made it harder for ourselves,” Lombard said. “It was just one of those games where things kind of compiled and stacked up on top of each other. It wasn’t ideal and we put ourselves in a bad spot. But what can we do about it now?”
As for the offense, here’s a snapshot: Rice, Wells and Cody Bellinger are 5-for-20 with two home runs and two doubles in the ALDS. The rest of the Yankees are 0-for-38. The team’s .086 batting average over these two games is the worst by an American League club in postseason history, according to stat guru Katie Sharp.
“You got to be confident, even when you go down 2-0,” Rice said. “You just got to take it game-by-game, at-bat by at-bat. Just got to keep winning pitches. When you think about how it’s an uphill battle, it can seem a little daunting. That’s why we just got to keep staying focused on the next one.”
Focus is a good word, considering the Yankees’ disturbing lack of it in Game 2. Did they just assume sending Schlitter out there was going to get the job done? Not against a Rays team that won the AL East title by doing all of the fundamental things the Yankees consistently fail to do, which typically results in them screwing up at the most crucial moments.
“Obviously a really rough night, to say the least, for us,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to get over it. We’ve responded all year to difficult times and we’ve got to do that again. We’ve got to get ourselves up off the mat. Tonight was just not good enough for us and certainly not good enough to beat that club.”
Even Schlittler suggested he wasn’t at peak performance. Perhaps the two most remarkable numbers of the night? He had only two strikeouts — he averaged 7.24 per start during the regular season — and only seven swings-and-misses (compared to 12 for Rays starter Freddy Peralta). The Rays were partly responsible for that, considering they had MLB’s lowest strikeout percentage (18.8) and highest contact rate (79.3) during the regular season.
“I went out there and threw strikes — I was happy about that,” Schlittler said. “Just didn’t have that extra kick that I usually have with the velo.”
The Yankees were lacking across the board Monday night, and if they don’t snap out of it in time for Wednesday’s Game 3, their postseason run will end in the Division Series for the second straight year. The Rays will be responsible, but Boone & Co. should carry a big part of the blame, too.
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.
