Cam Schlittler set the tone from the first inning, Ben Rice finished the damage late, and the Yankees opened their American League wild-card series with a 9-0 blowout of the Red Sox on Tuesday night in New York.
Schlittler was in command throughout, striking out 10 over 6 1/3 dominant innings and allowing only three baserunners in all. He gave up two singles and a walk while throwing 117 pitches, a career high and the most by a Yankee in a postseason game since CC Sabathia’s 121-pitch complete game in Game 5 of the 2012 AL Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles.
The right-hander, pitching against the team he grew up rooting for in Walpole, Mass., was nearly as sharp as he was nearly a year ago, when he struck out 12 and held Boston to five hits in eight scoreless innings in Game 3 of last year’s wild-card series. This time, in his third career postseason start, he delivered 77 strikes among those 117 pitches and kept Boston from ever getting traction.
Rice, a native of Cohasset, Mass., turned the game into a rout with a huge night at the plate. He launched a solo homer in the fifth to make it 2-0 against left-handed reliever Erik Miller, then added an RBI single in the seventh. In the eighth, he put the finishing touch on the Yankees’ five-run burst with a grand slam off Brayan Bello into the right-center-field seats.
Rice finished 4-for-5 and became the first Yankee with a four-hit postseason game since Gleyber Torres did it in Game 1 of the 2020 wild-card series at Cleveland.
New York also got a lift from Austin Wells, who helped Schlittler by winning an ABS challenge on Wilyer Abreu for a called third strike to end the first inning, then drove in a run with a single through the second inning against Boston starter Payton Tolle.
George Lombard Jr. added three hits and scored twice.
Tolle was tagged for one run on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out four, walked one and threw 58 of 83 pitches for strikes.
Paul Blackburn covered 1 2/3 innings and John Schreiber worked one inning to finish the Yankees’ three-hitter.
The Yankees can close out the best-of-three series on Wednesday, with Max Fried set to start. Sonny Gray will try to keep Boston alive and force a Game 3 on Thursday.
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