NEW YORK — The crowd at Citi Field had come to watch the Subway Series. By the middle innings, most of them were watching one man.
Cam Schlittler took the Yankees mound for the Subway Series opener and gave the Mets almost nothing. Two hits. One run. Nine strikeouts. A season-high 106 pitches. He took two hard-hit balls off his own body and kept pitching both times.
The Yankees won 5-2 in the Subway Series opener. Schlittler’s ERA stayed at 1.35. The reaction when he walked off the Citi Field mound told the full story.
Command, velocity and no room to breathe
Schlittler set the Yankees tone immediately. He retired the lead-off batter in each of his first six innings. No Mets runner reached second base until Juan Soto homered in the seventh.
His fastball sat 96-99 mph. He mixed his five-pitch arsenal and gave the Mets no pattern to sit on. He retired 18 of the first 20 batters.
The only Mets hit through six innings: Brett Baty singled with two outs in the second. Schlittler erased the threat and moved on.
He struck out Soto twice before the homer. A 95-mph cutter in the first. The same pitch to end the fourth. Soto was helpless both times.
Schlittler registered 19 swings and misses. His fastball was the primary weapon. He changed speeds and shapes enough that the Mets could never get comfortable against the Yankees ace.
It was his fourth straight Yankees start allowing one run or fewer. He is now 6-1.
The Soto homer: Only the second all season
Soto gave the Mets their only real moment in the seventh. He fell behind 0-2. Two fastballs rode the inside edge. The third missed. Soto drove it to left-center for his 250th career home run.
It was only the second homer Schlittler had allowed all season in a Yankees uniform. He had Soto 0-2 twice before that. The third pitch leaked into the zone. Soto punished it.
After the homer, Schlittler walked Baty two outs later and was removed. His Yankees night was done at 106 pitches.
Schlittler addressed the homer and what it told him about where his stuff was Friday.
“I don’t think I had my A-plus stuff,” he said. “But I was able to get into the zone and kind of dominate from there. I did a good job of mixing pitches, and the guys behind me made some great plays.”
Two batted balls, same result: Schlittler keeps pitching
The Mets hit Schlittler twice with batted balls. Luis Torrens hit a grounder off his heel in the third. Mark Vientos hit one off his foot in the seventh. Both turned into outs.
Both times Schlittler took the hit and kept pitching. He also took a batted ball in his previous Yankees start against Milwaukee and pitched through that too. The Yankees are fortunate none of it has knocked him from a game.
Schlittler was asked after the game about the hits on his body and kept his answer low-key, as Yankees fans have come to expect from him.
“It’s tough. My left leg is taking a beating a little bit,” he said. “Luckily today they weren’t too bad. Not much I can do about it. Just where the ball goes when they put it in play. I’d hope it stops, but it probably doesn’t look too likely.”
What this outing means for a Cy Young case building by the week
Before the game, Schlittler’s Yankees stats were already historically rare. According to OptaStats, he was the first pitcher since Walter Johnson in 1913 to carry a sub-1.50 ERA, at least 50 strikeouts, fewer than 10 walks and one or zero home runs through his first nine starts.
After Friday, the Yankees ace built an even stronger case. Schlittler leads the American League in ERA, batting average against, OBP against, SLG against, OPS against and fWAR. He is tied for first in wins, second in strikeouts and K/BB ratio, third in strikeout percentage and fourth in home runs allowed per nine innings.
His WHIP sits at 0.78. Only Paul Skenes of Pittsburgh sits lower, at 0.64. For a Yankees starter through this many starts, a 1.35 ERA is historically unprecedented in the modern era.
Cam Schlittler 2026 AL rankings
| Stat | Figure | AL rank |
| Wins (W) | 6 | T-1st |
| ERA | 1.35 | 1st |
| Strikeouts (K) | 68 | 2nd |
| Batting avg against | .168 | 1st |
| OBP against | .209 | 1st |
| SLG against | .234 | 1st |
| OPS against | .443 | 1st |
| K% | 30.1% | 3rd |
| K/BB ratio | 6.18 | 2nd |
| HR per 9 IP | 0.30 | 4th |
| fWAR | 2.5 | 1st |
Schlittler was candid about pitching the Yankees’ Subway Series opener. The city had spent all week talking about Max Fried’s bone bruise diagnosis. Schlittler changed the conversation.
“You are going to be a little extra locked in for situations like this, so those don’t faze me and I know that doesn’t faze the guys around here,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to be part of.”
He was also asked about the Yankees rotation with Fried on the IL and Gerrit Cole still finishing his Tommy John rehab.
“Not really,” Schlittler said when asked if the extra pressure fazed him. “We have two of our big dogs that were out. Carlos [Rodon] is back and Gerrit [Cole] is close. So as unfortunate the situation is, it’ll be good to get Gerrit back in there and hopefully the staff will continue to dominate.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked to assess the Yankees ace after the game.
“Par for the course,” Boone said about Schlittler. “He’s throwing the ball incredibly well, filling up the strike zone. Didn’t quite finish off the seventh inning, but another one just in command and control of the start.”
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