When Garrett Crochet absolutely stymied the Yankees lineup on Tuesday, striking out 11 in 7.2 innings of one-run ball, everyone expected that would be the best performance by a starting pitcher in the AL Wild Card round, if not the entire postseason run. And yet, in the end, it would only be the second-best performance of the series, as Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler, making his postseason debut in just his 15th career start, put together one of the best postseason outings of all time. In eight shutout
frames, he struck out a dozen, allowed just five hits, and did not walk a batter.
Schlittler piled up the accolades. His 12 strikeouts set a Major League record for most strikeouts in a do-or-die game in postseason series, a record previously owned by Cliff Lee (2011 ALDS Game 5), Justin Verlander (2012 ALDS Game 5), and Jake Arrieta (2015 NL Wild Card Game). He became the first Yankee pitcher to record 12 K’s and zero walks in his postseason debut. He set the Yankees record for most strikeouts in a postseason game by a rookie pitcher. The YES broadcast compared it to Roger Clemens’ start on October 14, 2000, when the Rocket struck out 15 in a complete-game, one-hit shutout in Game 4 of the 2000 ALCS.
The numbers and the accolades, though, don’t tell the whole story. A 2022 seventh-round pick out of Northeastern, Schlittler built up his velocity this past offseason but began 2025 in Double-A Somerset. Even after a 2.38 ERA there, he made just five starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before he got called up to the Show. Injuries to Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Yarbrough forced the Yankees’ hand while Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil were already on the injured list. Had Schlittler just been a serviceable innings eater, everybody would have been ecstatic. Instead, he buckled down, dazzled with velo and his “fastball triforce,” and solidified the Yankees’ rotation down the stretch.
Even so, a rookie making his postseason debut, in a win-or-go-home game, against the Boston Red Sox, a team that had manhandled them during the regular season and whom the Yankees had not beaten in a postseason series since their manager took Tim Wakefield deep more than two decades ago. Had he buckled, nobody would have batted an eye. Instead, on the biggest stage of his life, in a series filled with stars and legends, Schlittler outshone them all.
Schlittler bypassed a bullpen that has been shaky and worn down in equal parts, and much like Crochet did on Tuesday, he handed the ball directly to the Yankees closer. He eliminated the risk of relievers mishandling the series finale, all on his own. Extra measures like that are why we’re giving him our Wild Card Series MVP in addition to Player of the Game, even though Schlittler obviously appeareed just once in the three games. With all due respect to nice offensive showings from Ben Rice and Anthony Volpe, this series will be remembered because of Cam Schlittler. Just four batters after Schlittler’s departure, the Yankees had completed history, becoming the first team in the official best-of-three Wild Card Series era (2022 and beyond) to come back from facing elimination at the start of Game 2 to advance to the Division Series.
Prior to last night’s game, Cam Schlittler was known primarily for the fear he induced among announcers, as they tried to avoid accidentally swearing on the air. Three hours later, he had announced his arrival on the national stage. Today, baseball fans throughout the world know his name. As manager Aaron Boone said in his postgame interview with Meredith Marakovits, “Tonight a star was born.”
