In Game 1 of their Wild Card series against the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees made the wrong kind of history. Despite loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees failed to score a single run and lost 3-1, putting their season a risk.
In the decisive Game 3 Thursday night, rookie pitcher Cam Schlittler made the right kind of history, blanking the Red Sox and punching New York’s ticket to the Divisional Series.
These two storied franchises met on Thursday night, with each team turning to a rookie pitcher to extend their season. New York turned to Schlittler, who began the year in Double-A, while Boston called on lefty Connelly Early.
While the Yankees offense chased Early in the fourth inning, putting four runs on the board to take a 4-0 lead, Schlittler cruised through eight complete innings, striking out 12 Boston batters while not allowing a walk, turning the game over to David Bednar, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
Schlittler — who grew up in Massachusetts as a fan of the Red Sox — became the first pitcher in MLB postseason history to pitch eight scoreless innings with at least 12 strikeouts, without permitting a walk.
The Red Sox only had one runner reach scoring position when Nathaniel Lowe singled to lead off the fifth inning and advanced to second on a two-out single from Romy González. That’s when Schlittler recorded his third strikeout of the inning, a blistering three-pitch sequence against Jarren Duran featuring nothing but four-seam fastballs, the first at 99.5 mph, the second at 98.2 mph, and the third at 99.9 mph.
That strikeout of Duran exemplified just how electric Schlittler was on Thursday, as he mixed his four-seam fastball with a cutter and a sinker, all of which regularly topped out in the upper 90s on the radar gun. His last pitch of the night, a sinker to retire Trevor Story on a grounder to short, hit 98 mph on the radar gun.
It was his 107th pitch of the night.
“We needed to be perfect tonight, because he was perfect,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The stuff is outstanding. He was under control. That was electric.”
Schlittler admitted that some in the Boston area had some words for him online ahead of the game, but that he had the last laugh.
“People from Boston had a lot to say before the game,” Schlittler said. “For me, just being a silent killer, being able to go out there and shut them down. … I’m from Boston. I didn’t like some of the things they were saying today. I was just making sure I was going out there and extra locked in.”
He stayed locked in, and the Yankees are moving on.
And Boston is going home.