NEW YORK — The first time Cam Schlittler pitched against the Boston Red Sox, he wasn’t old enough to buy a beer.
On Thursday, standing on the Yankee Stadium grass, he was drenched in it.
That initial matchup came in February 2020, when Schlittler was a stiff, gangly freshman at Northeastern University. Despite having turned 19 just a few weeks earlier, Schlittler was handed the start for his Huskies’ annual spring training scrimmage against the Boston Red Sox. For a kid from Walpole, Massachusetts, who attended the 2004 World Series parade as a 3-year-old, it represented the opportunity of a lifetime.
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In the NESN broadcast notes from that game, shared with Yahoo Sports, one line from Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine touches on that dynamic:
“Hopefully Cam isn’t overwhelmed by the moment.”
He wasn’t. Schlittler worked a scoreless inning that afternoon. He retired current Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran, then a hot-shot prospect, on a flyout to center. He allowed one hit and did not strike out a batter. It was the type of novelty experience that a young ballplayer growing up outside of Boston might fantasize about.
Nobody, not even in their wildest dreams, could’ve expected the experience might one day serve as a prologue.
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On Thursday in the Bronx, Schlittler, now a rookie hurler for the rival Yankees, faced the Red Sox once again, this time under much grander circumstances. Facing off against his boyhood team in a winner-take-all wild-card Game 3, Schlittler, making just his 15th big-league start, kept his current employer’s season alive with a performance for the ages.
Across eight brilliant, scoreless innings in New York’s 4-0 victory, the 24-year-old struck out 12 Boston hitters and did not issue a walk. He leaned on a borderline untouchable four-seam fastball, a pitch that sat 98.9 mph on the night, nearly a full tick above his regular-season average. Once the Yankees pushed four runs across via a string of singles in the fourth inning, the rest of the evening belonged to Schlittler.
“When you throw 100 and command the baseball and can land your secondary pitches, you can be a problem for the opposition,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone joked after the game.
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Schlittler received a standing ovation from the raucous home crowd as he strolled off the mound following a 1-2-3 seventh. When he reemerged for the eighth — the first time a Yankees starter had done so with a lead at home in the playoffs since CC Sabathia in 2012 — the crowd went ballistic. Whether by design or happenstance, the rest of the Yankees’ defense hung back a moment, affording Schlittler a brief moment on the diamond all by himself.
He promptly retired the side on seven pitches.
And while a few members of the Yankees coaching staff considered sending Schlittler back out for the ninth on 107 pitches, cooler heads prevailed. Instead, the final frame was handed to closer David Bednar, who kept the Red Sox off the board to end their season.
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As the team flooded out of the dugout for the victorious handshake procession, Schlittler, clad in a navy blue hoodie, found himself somewhere in the middle of the pack alongside the other starting pitchers. At some point, injured ace Gerrit Cole, who missed the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March, strode over to Schlittler and pushed the youngster to the head of the line.
“Yeah, I just shook his hand and got his ass up there in the front,” Cole told Yahoo Sports afterward. “That was his game, man.”
It certainly was.
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Schlittler became the first pitcher age 24 or younger to strike out 12 in a postseason game and not allow a run. He conjured 18 swing-and-misses, the most in a playoff start by a rookie since Noah Syndergaard had 21 in 2015. By game score — a metric designed by the godfather of sabermetrics, Bill James, that summarizes the quality of a start based on a combination of length and efficacy — Schlittler’s outing is tied for ninth in the franchise’s very celebrated postseason history. Schlittler is also the first pitcher ever with 12 strikeouts, zero walks and eight scoreless innings in an MLB postseason game.
Schlittler’s rise from seventh-round pick to postseason hero in just 38 months speaks volumes about both the player and the Yankees’ pitching development group. When he arrived at the club’s complex in Tampa after being drafted in July 2022, Schlittler’s fastball was sitting at 89 mph. Although he was long and projectable, he was not a particularly fluid mover, making him a long-term development project.
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The Yankees loved his frame and thought that with time and added athleticism, he might be able to take advantage of his size. Few people in the organization thought things would come together so quickly.
The major step forward came ahead of the 2024 season. Schlittler added about 20 pounds of muscle, enabling a significant jump in the velocity on his fastball and a breakout minor-league campaign. That caused a lot of hubbub internally, even though Schlittler was not featured on any top prospect lists at the time.
Schlittler hopped on Boone’s radar during spring training this year, when he was summoned to start a game for the big-league club late in camp. His comfort with the assignment and his mature demeanor on the mound left an impression on the Yankees’ skipper. So when Schlittler was called up in July to join the rotation after having begun the season in Double-A, those around the club had some idea of what to expect.
Case in point, when asked when he started to believe Schlittler could accomplish something like what he did Thursday, Cole offered an unequivocal response.
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“About 13 or 14 starts ago. It’s easy gas.”
Schlittler’s sterling showing in Game 3 against Boston sets up another tantalizing AL East showdown, this time with the division-winning Toronto Blue Jays. The two clubs finished the regular season with identical records; the Jays earned the division and the bye via their season-series advantage over New York.
The current Jays are a somewhat diminished version of themselves, with star shortstop Bo Bichette and a pair of starters, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt, on the IL. Still, Toronto boasts a formidable roster, and the series should be extremely competitive. That means the Yankees will surely call on Schlittler once again, likely in a potential Game 4 back at The Stadium.
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But that’s a matter for another day. On Thursday, after the revelry of the clubhouse celebration, Schlittler, soaked in booze and looking for his parents, strolled into the subterranean tunnel that connects the bowels of Yankee Stadium. A stream of Yankees players, friends and family members strode past on their way out to the field. Schlittler craned his neck over the throng, the team’s novelty wrestling championship belt draped over his shoulder.
As Yankees hurler Max Fried walked past, he turned to Schlittler and said, “Dude, you can put the belt on.”
Schlittler grinned. He didn’t need to. Everybody already knew who’d won the night.