Cam Schlittler began the 2025 season at Double-A. Six months later, he was thrown into a New York Yankees winner-take-all postseason game in the biggest rivalry in baseball.
He proceeded to pitch the best game of his professional career, and perhaps one of the best the MLB postseason has ever seen.
In a historic, delirious night at Yankee Stadium, the rookie right-hander shut down the Boston Red Sox for eight innings, carving them up for 12 strikeouts to end a three-game wild-card series with a 4-0 win. The Yankees will advance to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS.
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Schlittler began the game pumping triple-digit heat and was still sitting in the high 90s more than 100 pitches later. There was some question whether Yankees manager Aaron Boone would end the start after seven innings, with Schlittler at 100 pitches flat, but Boone sent the 24-year-old back out there for another 1-2-3 inning.
Schlittler got help from the Yankees defense, of course, most notably when third baseman Ryan McMahon put his body on the line for the second out of the eighth inning. He needed some help from the Red Sox to escape the dugout unscathed.
It was almost a mercy when the Yankees sent out David Bednar in the ninth inning, with Schlittler at 107 pitches. It was conceivable he could finish the game, but he also just provided Boone plenty of reason to want to protect his arm.
How out of nowhere was this performance for Schlittler? Per MLB Pipeline’s Sam Dykstra, prior to Thursday, he had never posted double-digit strikeouts in any game of his professional career. A former seventh-round pick, Schlittler was still sitting in the low 90s as recently as 2023 and only made the majors after an enormous velocity jump.
There are no shortage of Schlittler stats now. He broke the Yankees’ record for most strikeouts in a postseason debut. He became the first rookie to hit double-digit strikeouts in a postseason game in 28 years. He’s the first pitcher, ever, to post at least 12 strikeouts, zero walks and at least eight scoreless innings.
It was an astounding night, which the Yankees didn’t waste thanks to a four-run rally in the fourth inning. With all the anticipation of another Yankees-Red Sox winner-take-all clash, he overshadowed every star in the building.
There’s no way to know what will come from Schlittler after this, in the postseason and the rest of his career. Regardless, he certainly showed the stuff and the spine you need to become an ace on Thursday.