Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler was phenomenal in his latest outing today against the Atlanta Braves at Yankee Stadium, throwing seven innings, allowing just one run, and striking out eleven batters. The lone run Schlittler gave up was on a Matt Olson solo home run to right-center field in the top of the 7th inning with one out.
Before that one home run, Schlittler retired 13 Braves hitters in a row after giving up a leadoff double to left fielder Mike Yastrzemski, who is the grandson of former Boston Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski. Schlittler’s 11 strikeouts all came via the fastball, according to YES Network. The Yankees offense hit some baseball hard, but had nothing to show for it, with the lone run coming from a Trent Grisham solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning, after Schlittler’s day was already done. The Yankees recorded four hits and had a fielding error from Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Yankees Still Win The Series Against Very Good Atlanta Team
The Yankees do, however, on a positive note, win a series against a Braves team that came in scorching hot, winning eight games in a row coming into Friday’s contest, and has one of the best records in baseball (second best) in the National League with a 71-47 record and a .602 winning percentage currently. The Braves ended this brief losing skid thanks to the Olson home run and a Michael Harris RBI single off Yankees bullpen arm Paul Blackburn in the top of the 10th inning.
For Cam Schlittler, on the other hand, today’s performance was a much-needed bounce-back outing from his previous start, which was on Monday, August 3rd against St Louis at Yankee Stadium, in which he pitched three innings but gave up four runs on four hits and one homer.
Schlittler has been a totally different pitcher compared to his home and road splits this season. Coming into today’s game, Schlittler has pitched to a 2-4 record with a 4.23 ERA in ten starts at home (Yankee Stadium) this season, whereas on the road (14 starts) he’s recorded an 8-2 record with a 1.10 ERA, per ESPN. Why such a drastic contrast with a talented pitcher like Cam is unknown. But it’s no secret that with Schlittler, he’s been extra motivated on the road this year during several outings, which include appearances against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. With this outing, Cam lowers his ERA to 2.21 and has now logged 146.2 innings pitched with 182 strikeouts.
AL CY Young Race Becomes Interesting
The race for the AL CY young really comes down to Cam Schlittler and Blue Jays starting pitcher, right-hander Dylan Cease, who’s also having an impressive season, posting a 7-5 record with a 2.28 ERA and 184 strikeouts in 126.1 innings pitched this season and a 1.04 WHIP. Cam has the edge in terms of both innings pitched, WHIP, and ERA, but Cease has the advantage in terms of a higher strikeout percentage in fewer innings pitched.
The AL CY Young conversations should continue to get interesting down the stretch as the Yankees chase a playoff berth. But for the time being, the Yankees’ and Cam’s focus is really on winning baseball games, and today the lineup couldn’t do enough behind him to support him and get the team and Schlittler the victory. The Yankees will look to change that with a new series Tuesday against Seattle.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Cam Schlittler Dominates Braves But Gets No Run Support appeared first on HEAVY.