Schlittler struck out 10 over 6 1/3 scoreless innings and Rice homered twice, including an eighth-inning grand slam, with four hits and six RBIs. The Yankees can sweep the wild-card series Wednesday.
Two New Englanders did the most damage to the Red Sox on Tuesday night. Yankees ace Cam Schlittler and slugger Ben Rice, both from Massachusetts, led a 9-0 rout of Boston in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series before a sellout crowd of 48,737 in the Bronx.
Schlittler, 25, threw 6 1/3 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, allowing two singles and a walk. Rice had four hits, two home runs and six RBIs. His grand slam in the eighth turned a tight game into a blowout.
Schlittler owns the Red Sox
The hard-throwing right-hander leaned on his curveball more than in any start of his career, and it helped him to a career-high 24 swings and misses. He struck out the side in the first, two of them on curves. By the time he left in the seventh, after a career-high 117 pitches with the Yankees ahead 2-0, the Stadium was chanting "MVP."
His career ERA against Boston is now 0.47 over six starts. That includes last year’s wild-card clincher, when he threw eight scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts. "If you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal, you’ve got to do it in the postseason," he said, adding that the job was not done yet.
Lefties feast on lefties
Boston’s deep supply of left-handed pitching had looked like a problem for the Yankees going into the series, especially with Aaron Judge out. Instead, left-handed hitters Rice, Cody Bellinger, Spencer Jones and Austin Wells went a combined 7-for-13 against three Red Sox lefties. Starter Payton Tolle lasted only 4 2/3 innings.
The bottom of the order opened the scoring in the second. Rookie George Lombard Jr. led off with a single, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to get a hit in his playoff debut. Anthony Volpe added a one-out single, and Wells drove in the first run with two outs. Rice, who hit 41 homers in the regular season, doubled the lead in the fifth with a solo shot into Monument Park off reliever Erik Miller.
Paul Blackburn took over from Schlittler and got a double-play ball to strand the inherited runner. The Yankees then scored twice off Alec Gamboa before Rice’s slam in the eighth.
"There’s nothing better than that," Rice said of beating Boston. Rice, Schlittler and Volpe were all signed by the same scout, Matt Hyde. Manager Aaron Boone called the pair’s night "pretty remarkable" and "kind of hard to grasp."
Boston loses Anthony
The Red Sox also lost outfielder Roman Anthony midgame when his hand injury flared up again, putting the rest of his series in doubt. Max Fried starts for the Yankees against Sonny Gray on Wednesday with a sweep on the line.
Reporting in this story is based on coverage first published by the New York Post. The photograph is a stock file image, not a photograph of the game described.
