The New York Yankees have had a rough go of things lately, losing five of their last six games heading into Friday’s game against the cross-town rival New York Mets.
The Yankees won the Subway Series opener 5-2 behind a strong pitching performance from emerging ace Cam Schlittler.
The 25-year-old righty threw 6.2 innings, allowing just two hits, one run, and walking two while striking out nine. Schlittler moved to 6-1 this season and wrote his name in the Yankees record books in the process.
“Cam Schlittler through 10 starts this season: 60 IP, 68 K (2nd in AL), 1.35 ERA (1st), 0.78 WHIP (1st), .168 BAA (1st), 6.18 K/BB (2nd). Only Yankee in franchise history with sub-1.40 ERA and 65+ K through first 10 games of a season,” Underdog MLB posted on X.
A Closer Look at Schlittler’s Dominance
In his nine starts this season, Schlittler has allowed more than one earned run just twice. He’s allowed one earned run or less in seven of those starts, including five outings of zero earned runs allowed.
Schlittler is emerging as one of the best pitchers in the league. There are only two hurlers in MLB with an ERA below 1.50 — Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers (0.82) and Schlittler (1.35).
He’s also tied for second in wins behind only Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby, he’s third in strikeouts (68), 12th in strikeouts per nine innings (10.2), and he’s got the second-best WHIP (0.78) in the league behind only Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes (0.64).
Entering Friday, Schlittler and Max Fried were the only Yankees starters with more than three quality starts this season, and among pitchers with eight or more starts, Schlittler had allowed the fewest hits (34), earned runs (eight), home runs (one), and walks (nine), and he’s tied for the most strikeouts (59).
Schlittler Reflects on First Subway Series
While the Yankees have plenty of big games on their schedules, the Subway Series almost always feels bigger than all of them.
After the game, Schlittler described what it was like for him getting his first taste of the in-state rivalry.
“It’s fun [playing against another New York team],” Schlittler told reporters. “You’re going to be extra locked in for situations like this, so those don’t faze me, and I know it doesn’t faze the guys around here. … There’s a lot of buzz around [this game], so again, great atmosphere and it was good to get the win.”
It also helped that Schlittler was locked in and Mets batters had no answer for him.
“Yeah, I felt good,” he added. “I don’t think I had my A+ stuff, but I was able to get in the zone and kind of dominate from there. So, I think I did a really good job of mixing pitches and he guys behind me making some good plays.”
Cam Schlittler Makes Yankees History in Win Over Mets