WASHINGTON D.C — The first pitch Cam Schlittler threw Saturday afternoon ended up in the right-field seats. The next damage came two batters later. Inside three hitters, the Yankees were down 2-0 and the young right-hander looked nothing like the pitcher who had carried their rotation for three months.
For a few minutes at Nationals Park, the memory of his June collapse in Detroit hovered over everything. James Wood turned on a fastball. Curtis Mead followed. A hot Washington lineup had the Yankees ace on the ropes before he had settled into the game.
What Schlittler did next is the reason the Yankees walked away with a 4-2 win and a third straight victory heading into the All-Star break. He refused to let one bad inning become the whole afternoon.
He also did something no Yankees pitcher had done in more than seven decades, a detail buried beneath the box score and the late home runs that decided the game.
A shaky opening against a fastball-hunting lineup
The matchup was built to be uncomfortable. Washington entered the day ranked near the top of the majors in slugging against fastballs, and the Yankees right-hander throws a fastball variant more than 90 percent of the time. His four-seamer, cutter and sinker are his identity. The Nationals were ready for all three.
Wood led off the game by driving Schlittler’s first pitch over the wall for his 27th home run and ninth leadoff shot of the season. Two batters later, Mead pulled a cutter above the zone to left-center to make it 2-0.
Both balls were hit on heaters up in the zone. It was the kind of quick, two-swing damage that can spiral. Ten days earlier in Detroit, Schlittler had surrendered a career-high four homers and lasted only four innings. The early trouble in Washington carried the same warning signs.
This time the story changed. Schlittler blanked the Nationals the rest of the way, working into the seventh before handing the ball off.
The number that put him next to a 1952 Yankee
Here is what the comeback nearly hid. With the finish line of the first half in view, Schlittler wrapped it with a 2.05 ERA, the best mark among American League starters. That alone would be a story for an unheralded seventh-round pick in his first full Yankees season.
The deeper mark is the one that reaches back generations. According to research from analyst Katie Sharp, Schlittler is only the second Yankees pitcher to carry an ERA below 2.10 and a WHIP below 0.95 into the All-Star break with at least 10 starts. The last was Allie Reynolds in 1952. No Yankee had matched that combination of run prevention and baserunner suppression at the midpoint in 74 years.
The supporting line is just as loud. Schlittler is the only American League pitcher with a sub-2.50 ERA this season. He has done it while ranking among the league leaders in strikeouts and walking almost nobody until Saturday.
On the year, he sits at 9-5 with 137 strikeouts and just 25 walks over 118 2/3 innings. His command wobbled against Washington, where he tied a season high with four walks, yet he still struck out six and escaped every jam the early homers and free passes created.
Grinding when he did not have his best
Schlittler was honest about the start. He knew he did not have sharp command, and he knew what happened the last time a lineup jumped him early. The difference Saturday was his response between innings.
“Good pitchers are going to battle through that or you’re going to crumble,” Schlittler said. “I feel like I crumbled a little bit against Detroit.”
He framed the outing as a test he needed to pass, not a performance he wanted to admire. Getting deep into the game with poor command mattered more to him than the strikeout total.
“I feel like I can take today as a win in terms of making those adjustments and getting deeper into the game than I probably should’ve been,” he said.
His Yankees teammates saw the same thing. Trent Grisham, who delivered the go-ahead swing later in the day, kept his praise simple after watching Schlittler work out of trouble.
“Just a bunch of resilience, making pitches, competing,” Grisham said.
Closer David Bednar, who locked down the ninth for his 18th save, has watched the whole run up close.
“What he’s done all year is just really special,” Bednar said. “He showcased that today.”
A comeback and Yankees first motto
The Yankees offense stayed quiet until the eighth, when the roster came alive against a shaky Washington bullpen. Ryan McMahon opened the rally with a solo homer. After Ben Rice walked to reach base for the fourth time, Grisham drove a two-run shot to the second deck in right for the lead. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a solo blast, his first home run since June 24.
All nine Yankees runs in the first two games of the series came on home runs. The win was manager Aaron Boone’s 750th, and it pushed New York to 53-42 with a chance at a sweep before the break.
Boone praised the way Schlittler handled a heavy lineup rather than the raw line on the scoreboard.
“That’s a heavy offense that they run at you, so it’s certainly a test, that’s for sure,” Boone said.
Now comes the reward. The Yankees have a first-time All-Star, and Boone said before the game there is a good chance the right-hander pitches in Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia. Schlittler said he had not yet been told whether he has the green light, and that the decision rests partly with AL manager John Schneider of the Blue Jays.
Schlittler, still chasing a sweep and locked in on his own team, did not sound like a pitcher counting down to the spotlight.
“It’d be a cool experience,” he said. “Not gonna lie, I’m not too worried about it. I got more things to worry about in terms of just this team and how we’ve been playing, and I like how it’s been the last couple days.”
For a franchise that has waited 74 years to see this exact blend of dominance at the break, the wait to see him on an All-Star mound feels a lot shorter.
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