Cam Schlittler has made a habit of making life miserable for the Red Sox, and Tuesday night in the Bronx was no exception. In Game 1 of the Wild Card series, the Yankees ace backed up the talk and carved through Boston again, giving New York exactly the kind of opening punch it wanted.
Schlittler worked 6.1 innings and didn’t allow a run, striking out 10 while giving up only two hits and one walk. He needed 117 pitches to do it, but the damage never came. Boston managed just three baserunners before Schlittler’s night ended in the seventh, after Wilyer Abreu singled for the Red Sox’s second hit.
That outing didn’t quite top his Game 3 gem from last year’s Wild Card series, when he threw eight shutout innings, but it was still another command performance against New York’s biggest rival. For a matchup built around pitching on both sides, Schlittler set the tone early and never let go.
The pitch count told part of the story, too. Those 117 pitches were a career high, passing the 107 he threw last year in the playoffs against Boston. It was also the most pitches by a Yankees pitcher in the postseason since CC Sabathia in 2012.
Schlittler’s final start of the season against the Red Sox wrapped up the way so many of his outings against them have: with Boston stuck under pressure and Schlittler in control. Across five starts, he never allowed more than one earned run.
When Aaron Boone took him out, Yankee Stadium let him know what it thought of the performance. Fans broke into MVP chants for the right-hander who has become known for talking trash to Boston fans online and then following it up on the mound.
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