NEW YORK — Cam Schlittler gave the Yankees almost everything a club could ask from a starter Sunday. He attacked one of baseball’s best lineups with triple-digit velocity, struck out 11 without issuing a walk and carried a scoreless afternoon into the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium. The rookie needed only 96 pitches to complete seven innings, allowing three hits and one run while repeatedly keeping Atlanta from building an inning.
The Yankees still needed him to be better than that. Matt Olson turned a 100.0 mph four-seamer into a solo home run in the seventh, and that single mistake became enormous because New York spent most of the afternoon unable to convert contact, baserunners or favorable situations into runs. Trent Grisham finally answered with a game-tying solo homer in the eighth, but the Yankees never produced the second run Schlittler’s work deserved.
Atlanta won 2-1 in 10 innings when Michael Harris II singled home automatic runner Ha-Seong Kim against Paul Blackburn. Raisel Iglesias earned the win, Blackburn took the loss and Tyler Kinley retired the Yankees in order for his first save of the season. Jazz Chisholm Jr. began the bottom of the 10th at second base, but Spencer Jones popped out, George Lombard Jr. grounded out and Ryan McMahon struck out. Chisholm never advanced.
That ending arrived only 48 hours after the Yankees had finally turned the automatic-runner rule to their advantage in Friday’s walk-off victory over the same Braves. It also prevented New York from completing its first home sweep since early May. The Yankees still took two of three from Atlanta, the NL East leader, but the three one-run games required almost no margin for error. New York scored only nine runs in the series, and Sunday exposed how much pressure the lineup continues to place on a pitching staff that has repeatedly kept games within reach.
Another offensive threshold arrives
Sunday marked the 20th time this season the Yankees were held to exactly one run. They also finished with four hits or fewer for the 17th time, widening the concern beyond one quiet afternoon against Grant Holmes and the Atlanta bullpen.
The Yankees went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Their best chance came in the sixth when Austin Wells singled and Grisham doubled with one out. Ben Rice lined to Ronald Acuña Jr. in right, but Wells held at third rather than challenge Acuña’s arm. Heliot Ramos then struck out.
Atlanta’s defense erased other chances. Michael Harris II made a leaping catch on Grisham, and Matt Olson turned Lombard’s liner into an unassisted double play. The loss dropped New York to 2-9 in extra-inning games, restoring a familiar image: a runner placed at second and three outs passing without even a move to third.
Schlittler makes one mistake and pays for it
Schlittler’s outing was a sharp rebound from his previous start against St. Louis, when he lasted three innings, allowed four earned runs and issued a career-high five walks. Against Atlanta, he struck out five of the first six hitters and threw 67 of 96 pitches for strikes. All 11 strikeouts came on fastballs.
Manager Aaron Boone viewed it as one of the rookie’s strongest performances of the season.
“Cam was dominant,” Boone said. “That’s up there with as good as he’s been all year, which is saying something.”
Wells says Yankees starters are being asked for near perfection
The problem was not lost on the Yankees clubhouse. Wells said the pitching staff has been forced to operate with an extreme standard because the lineup has not provided consistent support.
“At the moment, those guys gotta be almost perfect for us to be in the ballgame,” the catcher said, “and they have been, which has been incredible.”
The Yankees entered Sunday with MLB’s best team ERA at 3.33, while their offense had the majors’ worst wRC+ at 88 since Aaron Judge last played May 31. Over that span entering the finale, New York ranked 25th in runs and 27th in OPS.
Judge remains on the 60-day injured list with a stress fracture of his right first rib. Cody Bellinger is out with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, and Giancarlo Stanton continues his rehabilitation from a right calf strain. New York added Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos and promoted Lombard before the deadline, but Sunday’s four-hit performance showed the larger problem has not disappeared.
A series win leaves the warning intact
Grisham supplied nearly all of the Yankees’ offense Sunday. He went 2-for-4, doubled and hit the tying home run, accounting for half of New York’s hits. No other player on either team recorded multiple hits.
Boone said the Yankees produced better at-bats than in some recent low-scoring losses, but he returned to the same requirement that has followed the lineup through the summer.
“We had better at-bats as a club, but still, we gotta find a way to push across,” Boone said. “When you’re going through the stretch we’ve been offensively, you want to be putting some crooked numbers on, and that’s been a challenge.”
The Yankees finished the weekend 66-52, 5 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and 1 1/2 games ahead of Boston. They are off Monday before opening a three-game series against Seattle on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
They left the Braves series with two wins, another elite start from Schlittler and the same unresolved offensive problem. On Sunday, one run was enough to reach an ugly season threshold. It was not enough to finish a sweep.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
