NEW YORK — Tuesday began on a sombre note in New York Yankees land with the morning news that Aaron Judge had been left off the club’s wild-card roster. However, later in the evening, not long after first pitch, the concern had been dialled down significantly.
Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice made sure of that.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone recently called the two players “pillars of our now and our future,” and they showed why in Tuesday’s 9-0 thrashing of the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League wild-card series.
Schlittler continued his post-season brilliance against his hometown team with a 6.1-inning, 10-strikeout performance, while fellow Massachusetts native Rice smacked a solo homer and a grand slam as part of his four-hit, six-RBI night. The contributions ignited a sellout Yankee Stadium crowd and put the club on the brink of clinching the best-of-three series.
“For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this post-season, pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp, frankly,” Boone said. “But I'm certainly glad we have those two.”
The contributions were especially welcome given the status of Judge, the Yankees superstar who’s rehabbing from a right calf injury and hopes to return in a potential division series. Should the Yankees advance, Boone described this time off for Judge as “valuable days” that could move him closer to becoming a “real option for us.”
The entire Yankees organization orbits around Judge, rightfully so given his standing as one of the most prolific hitters in the sport’s history. And yet, the slugger is 34 years old. There will come a time when the Yankees will need to be carried by other centrepieces.
Schlittler and Rice are poised to slide into such prominent franchise roles, and it’s nights like Tuesday that prove they may already have.
Schlittler touched 101 m.p.h. in the first inning and maintained an increase in velocity on all three of his fastball variations. The right-hander has a well-documented tendency of relying on those pitches but, in Game 1, he flummoxed Red Sox hitters with his curveball, upping its usage drastically to 27 per cent from its regular 10 per cent. He recorded eight whiffs with it, along with 14 off his four-seamer.
Boone and Schlittler declined to divulge much about that strategy, but Red Sox manager Chad Tracy acknowledged his hitters were thrown off by the breaking ball.
“If he needed it for a strike, he was able to bounce it or get it underneath,” Tracy said. "So, it was just increased usage with that, and he was landing it and doing a really good job with that pitch.”
Schlittler, who’s poised to win the AL Cy Young Award, allowed just three balls out of the infield. He tossed a career-high 117 pitches and has not allowed a run in 14.1 post-season innings against the Red Sox.
Additionally, his performance was historic in that he became just the sixth pitcher ever to record two playoff starts with at least 10 strikeouts, joining a list that includes Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson, among others.
He was asked about the importance of regular-season success translating into the post-season while playing for the Yankees.
“I mean, the job's not done,” Schlittler responded. “We've gotta get another win tomorrow. But it's very well known that if you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal, you've got to do it in the post-season. So, go out there and have dominant starts and put the team in the position to win. And that's the most important thing.
“I thought a lot of guys today did a great job of that,” he continued. "And we're definitely headed in the right direction.”
Schlittler, drafted in the seventh round in 2022, and Rice, selected in the 12th round in 2021, are player development success stories for the Yankees, an organization that never drafts high because of its consistent winning records. The right-hander said he and Rice have discussed that often.
“Just to have the confidence of being mid-round guys, having to work a little bit harder to get up here and embrace that together, it's special,” he said.
Rice, meanwhile, launched 41 homers and posted an .897 OPS during a season in which he became an anchor in the Yankees lineup as Judge missed 96 games. The designated hitter said he placed a focus on being consistent to help him shoulder that load.
“When it starts to get hard, that's all the more reason to be consistent,” Rice said. “You've got to lean on your everyday routine, your everyday approach, your preparation. All of that is really for the hard times.
“That's the backbone of your season.”
The Yankees will look to close out the series on Wednesday when left-hander Max Fried takes the mound against Red Sox righty Sonny Gray. They’ll play without Judge, but that sentence doesn’t quite sting like it should for the Yankees right now.
"Of course, the homegrown guys were really good tonight,” said Boone. “One of those really special nights at Yankee Stadium. … You enjoy it for a minute, but it's getting right back after it tomorrow knowing that we'll have a chance to close it out.”
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