Cam Schlittler entered play on Friday with the fourth best bWAR among all pitchers in the sport prior to his scheduled start against the Cincinnati Reds in the series opener in Yankee Stadium. Safe to say, the burgeoning New York Yankees ace is going to find himself higher on that list come Saturday morning.
Schlittler hit the first batter of the game before settling in, and settle in he did. He fanned 13 Reds hitters across 6.0 IP – yeah, 13 of the 18 outs he recorded came via strikeout – and allowed
nary a run as the Yankees eventually blasted their way to a 5-0 victory. He needed just 96 pitches to get that work done, scattering 4 hits and walking none while piling up his baker’s dozen of fans.
Jazz Chisholm, Jr. socked a solo homer off Reds starter Rhett Lowder to begin the damage, while Ben Rice later added a tattooed 433 foot homer off Lowder in the Bottom of the 2nd that put this game on complete ice with Schlittler on cruise control. That latter one was of the 3-run variety, which was quite unfortunate, but even a solo job would’ve been enough to bury the Reds on the night.
To Lowder’s credit, he settled down shortly thereafter and managed to clear 5.1 IP with just the 4 ER allowed, finding a way to fan 5 against a trio of walks. It was far from his best outing, obviously, but at least he is gradually beginning to command the corners of the strike zone far better than he did to begin the season even if, yes, he is still leaving way too many over the plate.
Blake Dunn was the lone semi-bright spot on the offensive side of things, being that leadoff HBP off Schlittler and adding in a pair of hits – one a double – while also getting thrown out trying to steal. That’s all it took to be an offensive standout for this lineup on the night.
Cincinnati will send Andrew Abbott to the mound on Saturday afternoon to try to dig their way back into this series, while New York will counter with righty Will Warren. It’s a 1:35 PM ET start time, so plan your afternoon accordingly even if it doesn’t include – or specificially does not include – watching this team try to play this sport.
