Yankees manager Aaron Boone doesn’t hand out superlatives like candy. So when he called Cam Schlittler’s Friday night start “electric real early” and added “He was feeling it tonight,” that wasn’t just postgame politeness. That was Boone tipping his cap to a guy who looks more and more like a frontline starter every time he takes the mound.
Schlittler struck out a career-high 13 batters over six scoreless innings in New York’s 5-0 win over the Reds. He gave up four hits. He walked nobody. He generated 18 whiffs and 17 called strikes, per Baseball Savant. The 25-year-old righty from Massachusetts dropped his ERA to 1.71, which now leads the American League. He’s also just the second Yankee ever to rack up 13 strikeouts in six innings or fewer.
“I’ve been working on things for a little bit now, so it was good to finally kind of see that click,” Schlittler said.
Yankees offense gave him breathing room early
New York scored all five runs in the second inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr. started it with a solo shot to the right-field upper deck. Then Ben Rice crushed his 21st home run of the season, a three-run blast that put the game well out of reach before Cincinnati could even settle in.
After Schlittler exited, Jake Bird, Brent Headrick and David Bednar combined for three clean innings to lock down the win. Shortstop Anthony Volpe added an RBI single in the eighth for insurance, but by then the Reds’ lineup had already run out of answers.
Chisholm didn’t hold back when asked whether Schlittler deserves an All-Star nod this summer.
“I think that would be pretty cool to see him out there pitching in the All-Star Game, knowing that he’s one of the best pitchers in the world,” the second baseman said.
The Yankees found Schlittler in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. He’s been in the majors for less than a year. But the numbers and the stuff already point to a guy who could anchor a rotation for a long time.
Schlittler, for his part, isn’t thinking about individual awards.
“The goal is to win a championship, so those small statistics don’t really matter,” he said.
Maybe not to him. But for a Yankees team trying to figure out what it actually is this season, having a pitcher who can dominate like this on any given night might matter more than he lets on.
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