ARLINGTON, Texas — A young, hard-throwing right-hander who calls New York home, emerging as one of the game’s best pitchers?
That was once Jacob deGrom. It is now Cam Schlittler.
And on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, the two squared off, with Schlittler outdueling deGrom to lead the Yankees past the Rangers for a 3-2 win.
Schlittler tossed six shutout innings, scattering three hits and two walks while striking out eight and lowering his ERA to 1.51 on the way to the Yankees’ 10th win in their last 11 games.
The Yankees (20-10) had their hands full with deGrom, the former Mets ace, but got to him for a run in the top of the first before he completed six strong innings of his own, striking out five.
Once deGrom was out of the game, Austin Wells crushed a left-on-left homer against reliever Jalen Beeks to give the Yankees some extra breathing room with a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning.
Aaron Judge then remained hot, clobbering a home run for the third straight game — this one a majestic moonshot that went 424 feet and 112.7 mph off the bat — to make it 3-0 in the ninth.
It was Judge’s 12th home run of the season, nine of which have come in the last 16 games.
The insurance runs proved useful as the Rangers (14-16) threatened to spoil Schlittler’s fine night against the Yankees bullpen.
Brent Headrick stranded a pair of runners in the seventh before Fernando Cruz did the same in the eighth — helped in part by his own highlight-reel play in which he slid to field a bunt and threw from his rear end to third base, where Ryan McMahon scooped it like a first baseman for the first out of the inning.
David Bednar then got into more trouble in the ninth, beginning when McMahon committed a throwing error with one out.
Danny Jansen followed by roping a triple into the gap — Trent Grisham was shaken up while trying to track it down on the warning track, but stayed in the game — to pull the Rangers within 3-1.
Brandon Nimmo got hit by a 2-2 pitch before Josh Jung lined a single to left that made it 3-2.
But Bednar held on, getting Corey Seager to ground into a double play to end it.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
