TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees have handed their ugliest stretch of the season to a pitcher who has never played a full year in the majors.
Cam Schlittler takes the ball Monday night at Tropicana Field, charged with stopping a free fall before the first-place Tampa Bay Rays turn a bad month into a lost one.
It is the biggest start of the young right-hander’s career, and it comes at the worst moment for a team that cannot get out of its own way.
New York arrives four games back in the AL East, five in the loss column, after dropping 12 of its last 15 and getting outscored 86-41 in that span.
The math is what makes this start matter. By Thursday night, the Yankees could be tied for first place or buried as many as eight games back. Schlittler is the arm they trust most to keep the better outcome in play.
The ace the Yankees need right now
Schlittler has been the steadiest pitcher on the staff all season. Entering the week, he led American League pitchers in wins above replacement at 3.6, in ERA at 2.08 and in ERA+ at 203, according to Baseball Reference.
The historical company is rare. His ERA is the second lowest by a Yankees pitcher through his first 18 starts of a season in the past 40 years, trailing only Luis Severino’s 1.98 mark in 2018.
He has also shown he can rise to a big stage. Last October, with just 14 regular-season games behind him, Schlittler threw eight scoreless innings to beat the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series clincher.
This time he will not carry an underdog label, and he knows the expectations that come with pitching for the Yankees in New York.
“The people expect me to win games,” Schlittler said. “Obviously, they are going to hold you to a higher standard, and that’s something you want to be a part of because you want your fans to hold you accountable. Obviously, I hold myself accountable to the highest standard when I mess up.”
A rescue act built on a rough exit
The timing carries risk. Schlittler is coming off the worst outing of his season, a start that fits the team’s recent theme rather than breaking from it.
On Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees right-hander gave up a season-high six runs in a 9-3 loss. Three of the four home runs he allowed came in the first inning.
Schlittler did not hide from the result afterward. He put the blame on his own execution.
“I got ahead a lot in the first, just didn’t execute with two strikes,” Schlittler said. “For a team that likes to put the ball in the air off fastballs, I just didn’t get the job done. I just didn’t make the right pitches when it mattered.”
Manager Aaron Boone framed the recent rotation stumbles as a byproduct of a thin, banged-up staff rather than a lasting slide.
“We are dealing with attrition right now,” Boone said. “A couple of guys have had a couple of rough starts, but I don’t think it’s indicative of where they are and how they are throwing the ball.”
A crisis that could grow at the Trop
The backdrop is grim. The Yankees have not produced a quality start in 10 games, and their offense has gone 10-for-91, a .110 clip, with runners in scoring position over the last 15.
Sunday captured the slide. New York lost 6-1 to the Minnesota Twins before 39,155 at Yankee Stadium, did not put a runner in scoring position until the seventh, and did not score until the ninth.
That defeat handed Minnesota its first series win in the Bronx since 2014, closing a 1-5 homestand for a club that had long owned the Twins.
Now comes a tougher test. The Rays are four games up, have won nine of their last 11, and are 31-12 at Tropicana Field, a park where the Yankees have found little success in recent years.
Behind Schlittler, the Yankees plan to start Will Warren and Gerrit Cole in the next two games. Cole is still working back to form after Tommy John surgery, which adds weight to a strong first game.
A clubhouse searching for footing
The mood inside the room matches the standings. Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who aggravated a big toe injury Sunday but does not expect to land on the injured list, described a team pressing under the weight of the skid.
“We just hate losing, concern level is high,” Chisholm said. “When it’s not going well, it kind of sucks, but at the same time we just have to remember who we are.”
Cody Bellinger did not shy away from the size of the moment, even as he warned against pressing too far ahead.
“Yeah, it’s a big series for sure,” Bellinger said. “Can’t look too far ahead. No easy task, they got a bunch of good arms. We’re going to have to do a better job of manufacturing runs.”
The Yankees sit at 49-40, still second in the AL East and propped up by a weak league in which only five of 15 AL teams are above .500. An Aug. 3 trade deadline looms, but the free fall may not wait that long for answers. For now, the fix starts with Schlittler on the mound, with the Yankees hoping one strong start can quiet a crisis before the Rays make it louder.
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