It didn’t take long for Cam Schlittler to show he was ready for this moment.
The Yankees’ rookie right-hander began Thursday night’s do-or-die Wild Card Game 3 by pumping 100-mph fastball after 100-mph fastball, overpowering the Boston Red Sox in a statement 1-2-3 first inning.
And that was just the start.
In a dominant postseason debut, Schlittler hurled eight scoreless innings in a 4-0 win in the Bronx, sending the Yankees to the ALDS and eliminating their archrival in the process.
The Yankees will face the Blue Jays in the ALDS, which begins Saturday afternoon in Toronto.
“I love the pressure,” Schlittler said. “That’s something I embrace. I embrace the fans. When you’re on, you’re on, so for me to be able to embrace all that, it was a great feeling.”
Schlittler, who grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Mass., began the season at Double-A Somerset but quickly shot up the Yankees system and made his MLB debut in July.
He entered Thursday with only 14 MLB starts under his belt, but manager Aaron Boone entrusted the flame-throwing 24-year-old with Thursday’s winner-take-all Game 3 after he went 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA in the regular season.
The Red Sox countered with a promising rookie of their own, turning to left-hander Connelly Early, who made his MLB debut less than a month ago and pitched to a 2.33 ERA in four starts.
But the stoic Schlittler outdueled his counterpart, racking up 12 strikeouts behind a fastball that averaged 99.0 mph and maxed out at 100.8 mph. The 12 strikeouts set a single-game playoff record for a Yankees rookie.
“I felt great about where he was mentally last night when he was leaving,” Boone said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be too big for him. What a performance.”
Boston managed only five hits — all singles — against Schlittler, who did not issue a walk over his 107 pitches. Only one Red Sox runner reached second base, and Schlittler escaped that fifth-inning jam with a three-pitch strikeout of Jarren Duran.
Schlittler was at 100 pitches when he finished the seventh by striking out Wilyer Abreu with a 99-mph fastball.
A sellout crowd of 48,833 erupted when Schlittler emerged from the dugout for the top of the eighth. He needed only seven pitches to work through his final inning, which was aided by third baseman Ryan McMahon making a running catch in foul territory, then holding on as he flipped over the railing and into the Red Sox dugout.
“I thought I was done after the seventh,” Schlittler said. “But [Boone has] put a lot of faith in me the last three months, so it’s a good feeling to go out there and return the favor.”
Schlittler said Thursday’s game felt “personal” for him after trash-talking Red Sox fans crossed a line. He declined to disclose what they said, but he acknowledged some of his friends were among those chirping.
“Boston fans, that’s just how it is,” Schlittler said. “We’re aggressive back home and we’re gonna try to get under people’s skin. They just picked the wrong guy to do it to and the wrong team to do it to.”
Early, meanwhile, got the start because veteran right-hander Lucas Giolito was left off of Boston’s Wild Card roster due to an elbow injury.
The 23-year-old Early matched Schlittler by keeping the Yankees off the board through three innings, but they got to him for four runs in the fourth.
Cody Bellinger began that rally with a bloop double, and three batters later, Amed Rosario drove him in with an RBI single for the Yankees’ first run.
Anthony Volpe added an RBI single, and the Yankees scored two more runs when Boston first baseman Nathaniel Lowe failed to field a bases-loaded chopper off the bat of Austin Wells for a costly error.
That was plenty of run support for Schlittler, who became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw at least eight innings with at least 12 strikeouts and not issue a walk in a playoff game.
“He’s been our secret weapon,” Aaron Judge said of Schlittler. “Ever since he got called up, this guy’s been impressive for us.”
After dropping Game 1, the Yankees bounced back with victories in Games 2 and 3 to win the best-of-three Wild Card series.
This is the first time since MLB introduced the best-of-three format in 2022 that a team has advanced after losing Game 1.
“These guys just kept playing,” Boone said. “Honestly, going into the night for me personally, it felt like as pressure-packed a game as I have ever been in, as a player, manager, going into the World Series … just because of the context in my brain of what I think our team is. A great opponent. A storied opponent. Here, down one. The boys answered the bell and played great baseball.”
It’s also the first time the Yankees have defeated the Red Sox in a playoff series since the 2003 ALCS, when Boone struck his famed walk-off home run in Game 7. The Red Sox had eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs three times since then.
The Yankees now turn their attention to the Blue Jays, whom they are set to meet in the postseason for the first time.
The Yankees (94-68) finished with the same record as Toronto in the regular season, but the AL East crown went to the Blue Jays via tiebreaker because they won the head-to-head season series, 8-5.
“They’re a complete team,” Judge said of the Blue Jays. “They don’t strike out a lot, so they’re gonna put the ball in play and they’re gonna force your hand on defense, but we’re looking forward to it. It’s a fun group. Toronto’s gonna be rockin’. We love that. The Bronx is rockin’. It’s gonna be fun.”