Cam Schlittler will try to extend his strong start when the New York Yankees send him to the mound Tuesday night against Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas. The matchup comes after the Yankees opened the series with a 4-2 win Monday and with New York riding a 9-1 stretch over its past 10 games.
Schlittler is 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA and has allowed two runs or fewer in four of his six starts this season. He worked eight innings Thursday against the Boston Red Sox, giving up two runs, one earned, on four hits while getting a career-high 12 outs on the ground. Yankees manager Aaron Boone called it an ace-like performance and said Schlittler is getting really, really good out there.
The Yankees have leaned on pitching and power while surging into this start. Max Fried threw six scoreless innings in Monday’s opener, New York hit three home runs and the club owns an American League-best 3.18 ERA. Aaron Judge has eight of his 11 homers in his past 15 games, while Ben Rice has six of his 10 in his past 11. Boone said Rice is off to an amazing start and added that Judge has been ho-hum with 11 homers already.
DeGrom brings a different kind of pressure. The Rangers are 5-0 in his starts this season, and he is 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA. He struck out 10 in 5 2/3 innings Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing one run on five hits, and has given up three runs in his past four starts. Skip Schumaker said that was the best deGrom has thrown all year and said he was 98 miles an hour pretty consistently, dotting almost every fastball and throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes.
The right-hander also has history against New York. DeGrom is 2-4 with a 3.14 ERA in eight career starts against the Yankees, and he held them to two runs on three hits in seven innings in a no-decision on May 21 last year. Judge has one hit in seven at-bats against him, while Cody Bellinger is 5-for-19. Schlittler did not face Texas last season, though he went 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA, 84 strikeouts and 73 innings over 14 starts in his rookie campaign.
The Rangers need the rebound at home. They have been held to two runs or fewer for the eighth time, six of those at home, and they are batting.216 in Arlington. Corey Seager is hitting.183 over his past 22 games and.212 overall, while Schumaker said he can tell the shortstop is grinding through some stuff but feels close to getting hot. That leaves Texas with a power arm on the mound and a lineup that has not yet matched it, and Tuesday’s game will show whether deGrom can keep carrying them or whether Schlittler can keep New York rolling.
