From Bryan Hoch:
Aaron Judge’s first impressions of Cam Schlittler were simple: a quiet sort who seemed inclined to keep to himself, attempting to stay out of the way in a busy clubhouse. Over the past several months, the Yankees’ captain has learned that there’s much more there.
What Judge initially clocked as shyness has revealed itself as intensity, showing up every five days with a trio of fastballs that crackle in the upper 90s. And when Schlittler wanders into trouble, as he did late on Tuesday, that’s when Judge says the right-hander “shows that he’s got ice in his veins.”
“He’s just laser-focused,” Judge said after the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Field. “He embraces every opportunity. The times I’ve talked to him, or we have moments on the bus together; he wants to be in the moment. He’s not scared. There’s no fear.”
Helping the Yankees to their 10th win in 11 games, Schlittler continued a stellar opening act to his season, outdueling Jacob deGrom while lowering his ERA to a razor-sharp 1.51 through seven starts — the fourth-best mark in the Majors. Schlittler’s eight strikeouts matched his season high, yet the 25-year-old exited snarling about what he felt could have been better.
This is how good Cam Schlittler is. He clearly was laboring in this one, and didn’t have his best stuff, and he STILL threw six shutout innings against a non-terrible Texas lineup with some top-heavy really good hitters (including Josh Jung, who is red-hot right now).
So I don’t begrudge Boone pulling him after 92 pitches in the 6th inning. That was his worst inning, and he was definitely laboring, so why push the issue in April?
Tim Hill was probably not available tonight, so Boone had to go with his two next best late inning short men, Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick. I think I’d probably flop the two in the trust circle. I’ve said all year that I like Cruz well enough. He’s worth having in the bullpen, especially when he is focused (when is focused, he has one of the most dominant pitches in baseball. He just can’t focus. If he COULD do it, he WOULD do it, and since he HASN’T done it, he likely CAN’T do it), but he’s never going to be “teh 8th” guy.
The Yankees really don’t HAVE a guy like that on the team right now, but the closest they have is Tim Hill, so they hopefully will keep using him.
David Bednar ran into some trouble in the 9th, but honestly, he was about to have two outs and nobody on, ya know? But Ryan McMahon made an error (kudos to Andrew McCutchen for still being able to fly on the basepaths at 67 years old), and so Bednar made it interesting, but he also got out of it, so I’m not worried about him (this weird oversized outfield was the only reason Janson’s ball became a triple. In a normal stadium, Grisham catches that easily).
This was a rare pitcher’s duel that lived up to its hype.
Annoyingly, the Rays are hot as fuck right now, winning 1-0 themselves, so the Yankees are only barely ahead of the Rays (despite the Rays really not being THAT good. It’s all smoke and mirrors).
The final game of this series sees the Major League debut of Elmer Rodriguez. Let’s hope it is a good one!
Featured image is an exhausted Schlittler walking off the mound after six scoreless innings.
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I’m beginning to think this Schittler guy can pitch.
Then again if the first inning defense wasn’t great he might have been chased early. But kudos to him for using it and fighting through it.
Great day to be a Yankee fan and getting to see a hall of famer play every day. This is my version of my dad (now 93) seeing Joe DiMaggio and Mickey mantle.
I love watching Schlittler pitch. Just throwing strikes and going right after everyone.
What a great matchup with a similar (but more complete) pitcher in deGrom.
Same. From a purely aesthetic perspective, I would much rather watch Schlittler than the guys who nibble and walk 3-5 people even though they avoid a lot of hard contact.
Grichuk DFA. They keep Schuemann till phenom returns I guess.
I guess he couldn’t chuk that much Grich after all.
I hear that even though he’s the new guy, Schuemann is already seen as a real lieder in the clubhouse.
When I came to this site, I did not expect this level torture.
Bravo.
(But feel free to eScheu that kind of humor in the future.)
DeGrom : 254 starts, lifetime Whip under 1 (better than Mariano!), career ERA+ of 152 (#6 all time), 2 Cy Youngs,
And yet only 98 career wins. Because of games like last night. He had dozens of those or better as a Met, including 9 in 2018 alone. It’s why in today’s game wins is just a matter of luck.
I thought it was because he pitches three games and then gets hurt for a year and a half.
What a fascinating set of circumstances that led to Grichuk’s “demise.”
First, Rice hit so well that they didn’t want him to catch, and then Rosario hit so well that you’d rather use him as a pinch hitter against lefties than Grichuk, and Goldy has also always been ahead of Grichuk there.
Cabby has also been good enough that against lefties, you’d just as soon play Cabby in left and Volpe at shortstop.
Just no avenue for Grichuk.
Nope, and if Cabby and Volpe or McMahon* aren’t careful, Lombard could be here before they know what happened. I’d imagine that 1-2 of the extra starters and some roster casualties will get packaged up for bullpen help.
* I though McMahon was only signed through this year … He’s got 2027 as well.
So we’re turning to Elmer to hunt Wangers?