There are dominant starts, and then there's whatever Schlittler is doing right now. The kid was locked in from the jump against the Reds on Friday night, and the Yankees didn't need to sweat a single inning. It started in the 1st with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play — two Ks and a caught stealing before Cincinnati could even blink.
Schlittler sets the tone immediately — a strikeout-caught-stealing double play in the 1st inning, with the Reds looking completely lost at Yankee Stadium.
By the time the 4th inning ended, Schlittler was already at 10 strikeouts. Through 5, he had 12. The Reds were swinging at air. He was hitting 99 mph on sinkers, working counts to 0-2 seemingly without effort, and the YES Network broadcast kept cutting to him pumping his fist on the mound like he knew exactly what kind of night he was having. The offense backed him up early — Jazz Chisholm Jr. came through in the 2nd inning, still playing through whatever lower-body issue he's been dealing with, and absolutely crushed one out to right.
Jazz Chisholm launches a 390-foot, 107.5 mph home run in the 2nd inning — the first run of the night and proof he is very much healthy.
Ben Rice piled on with a 3-run shot later in the game, and the calls to put him in the Home Run Derby are getting louder by the night. The kid hits the ball hard every single time up. Add Anthony Volpe plating Jazz in the 8th to push it to 5-0 and you have a complete game in every way that matters — the only thing missing was a Judge cameo, and the Yankees are currently operating without him. A 46-28 record without their best player says everything about how deep this roster is right now.
Schlittler closes out his night with a 98 mph fastball, finishing with a career-high 13 strikeouts, zero walks, no runs, and a season ERA of 1.71.
The 1.71 ERA is not a fluke anymore. Schlittler is consistently doing this — going deep into games, missing bats at an absurd rate, not issuing free passes. The AL Cy Young conversation has been building for weeks, and after a 13-strikeout, 0-walk, 0-run line like this, it's hard to make a case against him right now. The Yankees are stacking wins without Judge, Schlittler is on a run that looks historically good for a young pitcher, and Yankee Stadium is becoming a very bad place to show up if you're an opposing hitter. This one was never in doubt.