NEW YORK -- More and more over the past couple of weeks, it’s starting to feel like Yankees starter Cam Schlittler is on the verge of tossing a no-hitter each time he touches the mound.
On Tuesday night against the Rockies, it seemed like the beginning of another brilliant outing, with the right-hander sitting at 99.9 mph with his four-seamer and breezing through the top of the visitors’ lineup in 10 pitches.
When it was time for manager Aaron Boone to hand the game over to the Yankees’ bullpen, the final line for Schlittler wasn’t flawless, but it was another worthy addition to the right-hander’s case for the American League Cy Young Award. Schlittler tossed seven innings of one-run ball in New York’s 5-3 win, allowing one run or fewer for the 20th time this season, extending his franchise record and the most in the Majors this year.
“He’s been the best pitcher in the league,” Boone said. “When you have that going all year at the top of your rotation, that’s massive. And that’s what he’s been.”
Facing three batters over the minimum, Schlittler had one blip, Adael Amador’s solo home run in the third inning. Otherwise, he was stunning once again, notching 10 strikeouts and allowing three hits and no walks as the Yankees clinched a 34th consecutive winning season, the second-longest such streak in history after their own 39-year run from 1926-64.
It was Schlittler’s fourth start this season with 10 strikeouts or more, with each one coming with no walks.
After a stretch of five starts in August when Schlittler lost a bit of a feeling for the strike zone (16 walks over 27 innings, including two outings with five free passes), the right-hander has logged two consecutive appearances with no walks. In a year where he has figured to be a front-runner for end-of-season awards, to see Schlittler work through this version of adversity has been encouraging to see for New York.
“I thought last time out, he made a really good adjustment where he went through a handful of starts, where by his standard [he] was a little scattered and walked some guys,” Boone said. “... Tonight, more of that. I thought Colorado, up and down the lineup, put some pretty good swings on him tonight. They’ve got some thump, and they were on some pitches.
“But you look up and it’s double-digit strikeouts and no walks and pitch-efficient, to get us through seven [innings].”
Schlittler utilized the different variations of his fastball, his weapons of choice all season, to dominate the Rockies’ lineup. He threw his four-seam fastball 50% of the time, generating 13 swings and misses on the heater alone and notching seven strikeouts. What stood out was how efficient Schlittler was at getting ahead with the hard stuff as well -- he earned a 73% first-pitch strike rate (8-for-11) with the four-seamer and an 83% first-pitch strike rate with his cutter (5-for-6).
“Again, they’ve got a great lineup,” Schlittler said. “So just being able to establish the fastball, get to my spots, defense was great behind me.”
Schlittler’s latest scoreless outing lowered his ERA to 2.01, which is the fourth-lowest mark by a Yankees pitcher through his first 30 starts (since 1913), behind Stan Bahnsen (2.01, 1968), Ron Guidry (1.77, 1978) and Spud Chandler (1.64, 1943).
This type of outing has almost become expected from the 25-year-old Schlittler, a figure who has morphed into the most consistent presence on a star-studded but beleaguered rotation. While holding the second-lowest ERA in the Majors behind the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski (1.95), Schlittler leads the Yankees in starts and innings pitched (178 2/3), both of which were good enough for top five in MLB after his outing on Tuesday.
“I feel like I’ve been able to gradually build up those innings each season in the Minor Leagues,” Schlittler said. “I feel like, yeah, I’m in a really good spot. I feel like I’ve been able to take care of my stuff and rely on my teammates and the staff to really push me through that.”
“That’s what I kind of told Booney when he told me before that I probably wouldn’t finish the game,” Aaron Judge said. “‘We got Cam on the mound, so I’m probably not going to get a lot of action anyway.’”
And for a team that was well practiced at treading water and surviving in Judge’s 100-day absence (it was 45-39, or .536, without him), Schlittler was a cornerstone of the pitching staff that helped keep the Yankees from sinking. Now, it feels as though he has worked through a momentary stumble to keep ascending toward the postseason again.
“Obviously, I’ve had some good conversations with him [Judge], and I feel like that was always the plan, and that was always going to be electric to have him back,” Schlittler said. “And especially the day I’m pitching was just a lot of fun. So the crowd gave him the welcome he deserved, and [I] just expect him to take off from here.”