Cam Schlittler's 12-K masterpiece leads Yankees to 1-0 win over Phillies
- Davis Cornell
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
The Yankees took down the Phillies 1-0 in a pitcher's duel to kick off this three-game weekend series. Cam Schlittler took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against Jesús Luzardo.
In the top of the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice and Amed Rosario went three up, three down.
Schlittler worked a 1-2-3 bottom half of the first inning and recorded his first two strikeouts of the ballgame. Schlittler recorded a couple more strikeouts in the bottom of the second inning and retired the side in order thanks to a nice diving play from José Caballero.
Schlittler continued to rack up the punch outs in the bottom of the third inning as he picked up two more to put his total up to six as he retired the side in order.
The Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 advantage in the top of the fourth inning as Goldy sent a solo shot the other way into the right field stands.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber laced a double in the right-center field gap. But Schlittler induced a groundout and picked up his seventh strikeout to work a shutdown inning.
The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth inning for Godly, but he grounded out to end the inning.
Schlittler navigated around a two-out infield single in the bottom of the fifth and picked up his eighth strikeout to work a scoreless inning. Then he retired the Phillies in order in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings and picked up three strikeouts, putting his total up to 11 in the ballgame.
In the top of the eighth inning, Ali Sánchez, Goldy and Rice struck out in order. In the bottom of the eighth, Schlittler allowed a one-out single and plunked a batter to end his night. Brent Headrick took over and allowed a single to load the bases with one out. Headrick got Treat Turner to fly out to shallow left field and Schwarber to ground out to keep the Yankees' lead intact.
“He's probably on the short list of guys who have been the best in the game that aren't the full-time closer or whatever,” Aaron Boone said of Headrick. “So he's been huge.”
Final line for Schlittler: 7.1 shutout innings pitched, three hits allowed, didn't walk anybody, and struck out 12 on 99 pitches. He threw his fastball 32% of the time, the cutter 32%, the sinker 21%, and the curveball 14%. Schlittler topped out at 99.7 mph, averaging 98.5 on the heater, with 16 whiffs.
The Yankees' closer, David Bednar, got the call for the bottom of the ninth and worked a 1-2-3 inning and picked up the save with some help from Cody Bellinger, who made a beautiful play in left field for the second out.
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Ryan Weathers on the mound; the Phillies starter is still TBD. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Schlittler is unreal; just when I think he can't get any better, he comes out and shuts down one of the best offenses in baseball. And Headrick picked up Schlittler and stranded a couple of his base runners, helping him pick up his 10th win. Bednar has been on fire as he hasn't allowed a run since May 18, the longest scoreless streak of his career. The offense didn't do much tonight with just three hits and one run, but thankfully it was just enough. Hopefully the offense can show up tomorrow, but I’m not going to complain about a win. It looks like the Rays are going to win again, so the Yankees will remain 2 games back from them in the AL East. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to win the series.
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