Cam Schlittler tried to save the Yankees again in the playoffs on Wednesday.
This time, he came up short — in large part because the Yankees offense was mostly shut down by Toronto’s bullpen in a 5-2 Game 4 ALDS loss in The Bronx that sent the Yankees packing.
The rookie right-hander, so dominant in a decisive Game 3 of the wild-card series against the Red Sox last week, when Schlittler tossed eight shutout innings and struck out a dozen to send the Yankees to the ALDS, was still good — just not good enough.
In his second postseason start — and just the 16th of his major league career since being called up in July — Schlittler allowed four runs, two earned, in 6 ¹/₃ innings and was the only Yankee starter to get an out in the fourth inning in the series.
“I thought [Schlittler] was good,’’ Aaron Boone said. “He didn’t have the dominant swing-and-miss stuff. I thought he pitched really effectively [and] was filling up the strike zone. I thought he made a lot of key pitches when he needed to, mixed well.”
But more than that, he proved again he was up to the task of performing well in important games against stiff competition.
He said he “developed as a player, person and teammate” this season.
“It’s experience I’ll make sure to take into next season and fuel for next year,’’ Schlittler said.
After suffering through his worst major league start on Sept. 5 against the Blue Jays, when he allowed four runs and didn’t make it out of the second inning, Schlittler held the relentless Blue Jay lineup to two runs into the seventh before his defense and Devin Williams let him down.
He found trouble early, with a leadoff double by George Springer and a one-out, RBI single by Yankee-killer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the game’s first run.
A base hit by Addison Barger prolonged the inning before Schlittler got Alejandro Kirk to hit a foul pop-up, where Austin Wells made a nice play, and Cody Bellinger saved a run by making a sliding catch of Daulton Varsho’s fly ball down the left field line.
He settled down for the next few innings, but in the fifth, Schlittler may have had some self-inflicted damage, as Toronto took the lead again.
After the pesky Ernie Clement led off with a single, Andrés Giménez hit a bouncer up the middle.
Schlittler appeared to pull his glove back, perhaps believing second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. was in place to start a double play, but the ball went into center to give the Blue Jays first and third with no one out.
George Springer followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Clement and give the Blue Jays the lead for good.
Boone opted to keep Schlittler in the game after a leadoff hit by Barger in the sixth and the right-hander escaped unscathed, but in the seventh, a one-out single by Clement led to a botched double play ball by Chisholm to end Schlittler’s night.
Devin Williams came in and allowed a two-run single to Nathan Lukes to give Toronto some cushion as they went on to finish the Yankees.
Schlittler heads into the offseason firmly a part of the Yankees rotation plans for next season, with Max Fried and Carlos Rodón leading the way and Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt expected back from elbow surgery at some point.
After starting the season at Double-A Somerset, the 24-year-old established himself as the organization’s top pitching prospect and with Will Warren and Luis Gil struggling at times clearly supplanted them.
“I think we all understand how excited we are about Cam and his future and what he could become in our rotation moving forward,’’ Boone said. “He had a phenomenal season and finished strong tonight.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
