Tuesday night kicked off the Wild Card round, and if you’re a Red Sox fan, it felt like a rerun of your worst dreams, because Cam Schlittler absolutely torched Boston again, delivering 6.1 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in a 9-0 Game 1 victory. The guy just owns them, plain and simple, and it’s getting harder and harder for anyone in Boston to pretend otherwise.
The Rivalry That Became Personal
You know, sometimes these rivalries just hit different, and for Schlittler, it’s personal. This isn’t just some random pitcher dominating a team. The dude was born and raised right there in East Walpole, Massachusetts. He even played college ball at Boston’s Northeastern University. And get this: the Red Sox barely even bothered to scout him. Can you imagine? Missing on a local kid who then comes back to haunt you?
It got even more intense last year, right before his first career appearance against Boston in the Wild Card round. Red Sox fans were actually harassing him and his family on social media. That just crosses a line, man. But Schlittler answered on the mound, carving them up for eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts in a winner-take-all game. Seriously, that was one of the most dominant postseason pitching performances we’ve ever seen.
Another Postseason Masterclass
And Schlittler hasn’t slowed down a bit. This season, he faced Boston four times in the regular season, giving up a grand total of two earned runs in 24.1 innings. That’s a ridiculous 0.74 ERA, along with a 0.99 WHIP and 10.0 K/9. But it feels like he really just lights up when the stakes are highest, especially in the postseason against them.
Tuesday’s Game 1? Pure dominance. He set the tone immediately, striking out the side in the first inning. Yeah, it took him 22 pitches to get out of it, thanks to a grueling 10-pitch at-bat from Adley Rutschman that ended in an opposite-field single. But honestly, that battle just showed how impossible it was going to be to get anything going against the guy. After Rutschman’s single, Schlittler retired 18 of the next 19 batters, with only a Jarren Duran walk keeping him from perfection. He even set a career high with 24 swings and misses, with 14 of those coming off his four-seamer.
The real story, though, was his curveball. He threw that Uncle Charlie a staggering 32 times, way up from his previous high of 20, and it’s usually his fourth-most used pitch. But it was absolutely lethal, especially on the first two strikeouts to Roman Anthony and Willson Contreras. At that point, the Red Sox scouting reports were pretty much worthless. And let’s be real, given his history against Boston, maybe they always were. Oh, and get ready, because this guy is going to be named the AL Cy Young winner in a few weeks. You heard it here first.
A Career Line That Defines Dominance
I mean, come on. Just look at the numbers against the Red Sox, including those two postseason starts: 38.2 IP, 22 H, 2 ER, 10 BB, 49 K. That’s a 0.47 ERA, a 0.83 WHIP, and an 11.4 K/9. Seriously, that’s Little League World Series stuff. Pretty sure that guy who went viral for trying to throw a perfect game in MVP Baseball 2005 wasn’t even that unhittable. And this is only his second big league season!
Schlittler can’t win by himself, though. Luckily for him, another Massachusetts kid, Ben Rice, from Cohasset, came up huge. Rice, who grew up a Yankees fan, delivered some postseason history of his own in Game 1 with four hits, two home runs, and six RBI. And here’s the kicker: during the regular season, Rice had a .473 OPS against Boston, striking out in 16 of 46 plate appearances. But when it mattered most, he brought the goods, just adding to Boston’s “How did we miss on that guy?” misery.
So, is this Wild Card series already over? With Schlittler dealing like this and another Massachusetts kid stepping up huge, it’s hard not to wonder if the Red Sox can even hope to turn this series around.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
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