Cam Schlittler came home to the rivalry and made Yankee Stadium feel even farther from Massachusetts. The Walpole native blanked Boston for 6 1/3 innings, while Cohasset’s Ben Rice drove in six runs as the Yankees rolled to a 9-0 Game 1 win in the American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday night.
For two players raised in Red Sox country, it was a sharp October turn. Schlittler grew up rooting for Boston, and Rice’s childhood was spent near Fenway Park, but both wore pinstripes under the postseason lights and helped put the Yankees one victory from advancing.
Quick facts
- Yankees defeated the Red Sox 9-0 in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium.
- Cam Schlittler struck out 10 and allowed two hits plus one walk over 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
- Ben Rice hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and finished with six RBIs.
- Austin Wells supplied an RBI single in the second inning.
- Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Schlittler opened the night with a 100.6 mph fastball and never gave Boston much room to settle in. He worked with a career-high 117 pitches, repeatedly going to his four-seam fastball and curveball while keeping the Red Sox off the scoreboard.
The right-hander has become a favorite target for Boston fans online, a role he has embraced. Before this outing, Schlittler said he was “good at keeping receipts,” and he backed up that attitude with another October performance against the club he once supported.
He also continued a familiar postseason problem for Boston. Schlittler had helped eliminate the Red Sox in last season’s AL Wild Card Series, and the pitcher regarded as the probable American League Cy Young Award winner again controlled the matchup from the first inning onward.
The Yankees scratched out the first run against starter Payton Tolle in the second. Wells lined an RBI single, and that was all New York needed on a night when Tolle permitted five hits across 4 2/3 innings.
Rice turned the margin into a rout after Boston went to left-hander Erik Miller. The first baseman crushed a 96.8 mph sinker over the center-field fence for his second postseason homer, adding to a regular season in which he led the Yankees with 41 homers.
He was not finished. Rice knocked in another run with a seventh-inning single, then broke the game open in the eighth by driving a grand slam into the right-field bullpen.
Rice’s New England roots made the night especially pointed. He returned from a childhood trip to Fenway Park with a Yankees cap, a choice that set his allegiance early. On another visit, he famously wrote “Yankees Rule!” on Pesky’s Pole.
Now Rice and Schlittler have given the Yankees the upper hand in the best-of-three set. Teams that win Game 1 of the Wild Card Series have captured 21 of 24 series, and home clubs with a 1-0 edge are a perfect 9-for-9, with eight of those series ending in sweeps.
New York can close it out Wednesday night. For the two Massachusetts products in the Yankees’ clubhouse, Game 1 already supplied another lasting mark on a rivalry that has followed them all their lives.
