Cam Schlittler finished the regular season with the kind of numbers that usually make the postseason rotation conversation simple. Instead, the Yankees head into the Wild Card Series with one of their biggest questions still hanging over the staff.
Thursday’s 6-4 comeback win over Tampa Bay gave New York the victory, but it also left Schlittler with an oddly complicated final tuneup. The right-hander worked only three innings, yet he still needed 70 pitches to get through nine outs. He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks while striking out five, and the workload has now fed directly into how the Yankees may line up their starters next week.
Schlittler’s season was elite by any standard. He finished 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA, a 0.92 WHIP and 239 strikeouts across 193 2/3 innings.
His ERA is the Yankees’ lowest since Ron Guidry’s 1.74 in 1978. Since ERA became official in 1913, only Spud Chandler’s 1.64 in 1943 and Guidry’s mark have been lower for a qualifying Yankees pitcher.
His 239 strikeouts also tied Jack Chesbro’s 1904 total for fourth most in a season by a Yankee.
That’s why the debate is less about whether Schlittler earned a postseason role and more about how to use him best in a best-of-three series that leaves almost no margin for error. The Yankees clearly wanted to limit the stress on his arm Thursday, but the outing wasn’t a clean, easy shutdown. He threw 47 strikes among those 70 pitches, a 67.1% strike rate, and averaged 23.3 pitches per inning and 7.8 pitches per out recorded, according to PinstripesNation calculations from the official game box.
The Yankees still got the result they needed after falling behind 4-0. Austin Wells homered, George Lombard Jr. doubled home a run, scored on a wild pitch and later hit the two-run homer that broke a 4-4 tie in the eighth.
Paul Goldschmidt delivered the tying single in the seventh. Bradley Hanner picked up his first major league win with two scoreless innings, Steven Matz took the loss, and no save was awarded.
The rotation picture is where things get interesting. Max Fried gives the Yankees a different look: he is 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP over 112 2/3 innings. Pitching coach Matt Blake has already acknowledged the possibility of opening the series with Fried and following with Schlittler.
“It’s just taking an inventory of where all our starters are to give us the best chance in a three-game series,” Blake said.
Schlittler wasn’t exactly hiding his preference.
“Who wouldn’t want to start the first game?” Schlittler said.
The decision now comes down to rest and sequencing. A Tuesday start would put Schlittler on four days of rest after Thursday.
A Wednesday start would give him five. Fried, meanwhile, would be lined up on extra rest.
And if the Yankees get past the Wild Card round, the choice could carry into the AL Division Series, which begins Oct. 3 against Tampa Bay.
Boone has not announced the Wild Card rotation, and the Yankees still have three regular-season games left against Baltimore. For now, the biggest question is how they choose to deploy the pitcher who gave them one of the best seasons in franchise history.
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