Erik Boland: Yankees' job is to stay ahead of Red Sox, in Cam Schlittler's opinion
Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler delivers against the Boston Red Sox during the first inning at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The morning after doing what he typically does to the Red Sox — make them look like junior varsity hitters seeing velocity for the first time — Cam Schlittler spoke of the importance of “separation.”
“It’s time to make a push,” the righthander said.
Schlittler spoke by his locker late Saturday morning as the Yankees prepared to play the Red Sox, a foundering team in mid-June but one that entered this four-game series two games behind the Yankees for the American League’s top wild-card spot.
That was a far-fetched notion a little more than two months ago.
After the games of June 24, the Yankees stood at 48-31 and the Red Sox — who earlier in the season fired manager Alex Cora and most of his staff — were 32-46, 15 1⁄2 games behind.
But the Red Sox swept the Yankees in four games June 25-28, starting a 32-5 stretch that put Boston in the thick of the playoff hunt in the uber-weak American League.
The “push” Schlittler spoke of is twofold: pushing the Red Sox further below the Yankees in the standings and cutting into the Rays’ AL East lead, with the hopes of perhaps catching Tampa Bay to cop the division title.
Schlittler did his part Friday night, grinding through 5 2⁄3 innings of a 1-0 victory that pushed the Yankees three games ahead of the Red Sox (and made Schlittler 3-1 with a 0.56 ERA in five career starts, counting the postseason, against the team he rooted for while growing up in Walpole, Massachusetts).
Boston bounced back Saturday afternoon, taking a 6-0 victory in the first game of a split doubleheader, but the Yankees responded with a 9-2 victory in the nightcap. That put them three games ahead of the Red Sox and tied the season series at 6-6. The winner of Sunday afternoon’s game will earn the tiebreaker between the teams.
They Yankees are 4 1⁄2 games behind the Rays.
The importance of finishing first in the AL East, something Schlittler later referenced, showed itself last season. The Yankees surged late to tie the Blue Jays, who played poorly during the last two weeks, atop the division. However, having lost the season series to Toronto, the Yankees were relegated to the best-of-three Wild Card Series and had a far more taxing road in their attempt to win the AL pennant.
The Yankees were fortunate to get past the Red Sox in the wild-card round, with Schlittler’s 12-strikeout performance in eight scoreless innings in the deciding Game 3 ultimately saving them from an embarrassing first-round ouster.
But that led to a Division Series matchup against the top-seeded Blue Jays, and in the ALDS, there was nothing to save the Yankees.
By virtue of their tiebreaker advantage, the Blue Jays had home-field advantage. After clobbering the Yankees in Games 1 and 2 at an ear-splitting Rogers Centre, they won the series in four games.
“Based on last year, you want to flip that switch a little bit,” Schlittler said of going pedal-to-the-metal in September. “We tie the division [last year] and we’re in the wild card. Makes a huge difference. We’ve been playing some really good baseball the last two, three weeks, and it’s time to create some separation and put ourselves in a good spot to take the division.”
Before thinking about the Rays, against whom the Yankees have four games at the Stadium from Sept. 22-24 (with a doubleheader on Sept. 22), holding off the Red Sox is the primary worry.
As Schlittler put it: “Do you want to play at home or do you want to play in Boston? It’s an important series. If you don’t create separation, we’re not going to be in a good spot.”
Saturday showed the perils of having to face the Red Sox, home or away. They have, in abundance, something that has proved to be Kryptonite for the Yankees in recent years: quality lefthanded starting pitching.
Lefty Patrick Sandoval held the Yankees to one run and three hits in 5 1⁄3 innings on Friday night — Paul Goldschmidt’s homer was the difference in a 1-0 victory — and rookie lefty Jake Bennett turned in six scoreless innings in which he allowed three hits on Saturday afternoon.
The Red Sox went the opener route in Saturday’s nightcap but still started a lefthander in reliever Alex Gamboa, who went 1 1⁄3 innings before giving way to righthander Brayan Bello. The Yankees will miss lefthander Payton Tolle (8-6, 3.09 ERA) in this series but will face lefty Ranger Suarez (5-3, 3.35) on Sunday.
What did Aaron Boone think about the “quality” of at-bats from his team in the first two games against the Red Sox starters?
“Well, I mean, we’ve scored one run in two games, so we have to be better than that,” he said between games on Saturday.
Boone’s terse reply was understandable. He had just watched his team play hideously in a game that featured the issues that have been all too representative of his tenure as manager in some of the club’s biggest games — poor decisions on the basepaths and sloppiness in the field.
“These are important games in that context of what we’re getting down to,” Boone said after what he called “a big win” Friday night.
The goal, as Schlittler said, remains the division title. But first things first: making sure the Red Sox, an MLB-best 28-14 since the All-Star break, don’t push their way past the Yankees.
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.
