The Yankees and Red Sox are set to open their playoff series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, and Cam Schlittler has already made sure the temperature is rising before first pitch.
The Yankees ace spent Monday leaning into the noise from Boston fans, a back-and-forth that has only grown louder around this matchup. As Brendan Kuty of The Athletic reported, Schlittler said, “[You’d] think after last time, how much they were talking before, that they might be trying to quiet it down a little bit,” Schlittler said to Kuty.
" ... I leave my comments on.
I let people say whatever they want to say in there. I don’t hide any of that.”
Asked later in his press conference how much he feeds off online comments from Red Sox fans, Schlittler made it clear he’s not ignoring any of it.
"I wouldn't say I'm always on my phone looking for that stuff," Schlittler said when asked how he feeds off the online comments from Red Sox fans. "At the same time, I don't really live under a rock, as well.
I've found ways to use that to my advantage. I think I'm good at keeping receipts.
At the end of the day, I'm locked in to go in there tomorrow and do my job. I feel like I'm a competitor ... it's not something that bothers me."
That tension has been building since Schlittler started Game 3 of the 2025 American League wild-card series and knocked Boston out. Since then, he and Red Sox fans have traded shots repeatedly, and it’s become part of the conversation any time these two teams meet.
This time, the feud has been humming for days before the series even begins. Red Sox fans have been posting about Schlittler on social media, and he has responded in kind. For Boston, he has become the villain in a rivalry that needed one.
The setting only sharpens the edge. Boston has reached the playoffs in each of the last two seasons after three straight years of struggling before that. Now both teams are back in the postseason, and the rivalry feels properly balanced again.
Tuesday brings another layer to it all: Schlittler on the mound for New York against Payton Tolle for Boston. Schlittler is 25 and, as the source put it, likely to win the 2026 American League Cy Young Award. Tolle is 23, has broken out this season, and is drawing a very different kind of attention thanks to his quirky personality.
Schlittler and Tolle are different in style and in how they’re perceived, but both have become central to what should be a charged opener. The trash talk is already underway. Now the series finally gets to answer it on the field.
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Yankees Just Gave Red Sox Fans More Motivation Before The Wild Card
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Across the diamond, Aaron Boones comments about already weighing pitching strategies for the Divisional round only add a little extra fuel to an already charged playoff meeting. Whether Boone intended it or not, it gives Boston plenty of bulletin-board material heading into a Yankees-Red Sox showdown where the first job is simple: survive the opening round and make sure the conversation about later series gets cut short. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Rookie Suddenly Enters Yankees Wild Card Pitching Debate
The Red Sox have lined up their Wild Card Series rotation against the Yankees, with Payton Tolle set for Game 1, Sonny Gray for Game 2 and Ranger Surez available for a decisive Game 3 if it comes to that. But one of the more interesting developments came Friday, when rookie Jake Bennett worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, giving Boston another arm to think about as the games get tighter and every bullpen choice starts to matter.
Manager Chad Tracy still has a few pitching calls to make depending on how the series unfolds, and Bennetts outing only adds to the conversation. For a Red Sox staff that already has its starters mapped out, the bigger question may be how much trust Bennett has earned for October leverage, and whether his unexpected late-season push can turn into a real postseason role against their biggest rival. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Fans Already Have One Wild Card Booth Complaint
Major League Baseball has set the broadcast crew for the Red Sox-Yankees Wild Card round, and the lineup already gives Boston fans something to talk about before a pitch is thrown. The games will air on NBC with Jason Benetti handling play-by-play, Lou Merloni in the Red Sox analyst chair, and Caroline Pineda working as sideline reporter.
What has drawn the sharpest reaction, at least early, is the rest of the booth makeup, which includes former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and former Yankees player Anthony Rizzo on the analyst side for New York. In a postseason series loaded with history and tension, the broadcast itself now has a familiar Yankees tint that Red Sox fans are bound to notice all week long. [Read more 🡒]