PHOENIX — Cam Schlittler left Chase Field with another pitching line that would qualify as dominant almost anywhere else. For the Yankees, it became another reminder that an ace can erase only so much when the margin around him keeps disappearing.
Schlittler held Arizona to three hits and one earned run over six innings Saturday night, striking out six and walking three. The Yankees still lost 5-3 when Pavin Smith hit a two-run, pinch-hit homer off Michael Fulmer in the ninth, turning a tied game into New York’s 11th walk-off loss of the season.
The defeat dropped the Yankees to 89-65 and five games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East with eight games remaining. New York has already secured a postseason berth, but the division path now runs through four games against the Rays at Yankee Stadium and requires help beyond that series.
Schlittler’s outing made the result harder to dismiss as an ordinary September loss. His ERA fell to an AL-best 1.94, and his season line moved to 14-6 with 234 strikeouts in 190 2/3 innings. He finished his road schedule with a 1.16 ERA across 17 starts.
The Yankees briefly gave him a 3-2 lead in the sixth on solo home runs by Heliot Ramos and Austin Wells. Schlittler then opened the bottom half with eight straight balls, Geraldo Perdomo beat out a bunt single, and Corbin Carroll’s sacrifice fly tied the game. Earlier, Schlittler’s own fielding error on Tim Tawa’s bunt helped set up Jordan Lawlar’s two-run triple.
Juan Morillo earned the win with 1 1/3 hitless innings for Arizona. Fulmer took the loss after Ildemaro Vargas won an ABS challenge for a leadoff walk in the ninth and Smith drove a cutter into the right-field seats. There was no save.
Schlittler had therefore supplied six more innings of elite run prevention without changing the Yankees’ larger problem. New York fell to 20-12 in his 32 starts, an unusual record for a club that has received one earned run or fewer from him in 24 of those outings.
Historic run prevention keeps moving into rarer territory
The loss did not slow Schlittler’s statistical climb. Sarah Langs’ historical research has him at 24 starts allowing no more than one earned run, tied with Bob Gibson in 1968 and Sandy Koufax in 1966 for the second-most in the Live Ball Era. Koufax had 25 in 1963.
In American League history, only Walter Johnson posted more such starts in a season, with 27 in 1913 and 26 in 1914. Schlittler’s 1.16 road ERA also trails only Johnson’s 1.06 in 1913 among AL pitchers with at least 15 road starts.
The career context is nearly as striking. Through his first 45 big league starts, before Saturday, Schlittler had 312 strikeouts and a 2.24 ERA. The supplied historical research places him with Jose Fernández and Paul Skenes as the only pitchers to clear 300 strikeouts while staying below a 2.30 ERA through that point.
Schlittler now owns a 2.22 career ERA with 318 strikeouts through 46 starts. He is also trying to join Ron Guidry in 1978 and Spud Chandler in 1943 as the only Yankees starters in the Live Ball Era to finish a season below a 2.00 ERA.
Schlittler delivers a pointed message
Only after the game did Schlittler turn the discussion from his own pitching line to the Yankees’ position in the standings. Asked about the five-game deficit, he gave a direct assessment of a race New York has repeatedly had chances to tighten.
“We gotta go on a good run. It’s gonna be tough. I think we’ve had opportunities all season to put ourselves ahead, and we haven’t done a great job with it. So there’s still a chance, but we gotta play our asses off a little bit.”
The message carried extra weight because Schlittler had just taken responsibility for the sequence that changed his own start. He did not treat the two unearned runs as an excuse for the Yankees losing another game they needed.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say I really gave them a chance,” Schlittler said. “That one’s kind of on me, so I’ll take the blame for that. Made an error there, let up two runs.”
He reinforced the point moments later rather than shifting blame to the defense, bullpen or lineup.
“I mean, that’s baseball, but yeah, that one’s on me.”
One more ace turn could decide how October starts
An MLB comparison graphic before Saturday placed Schlittler’s season beside Clayton Kershaw’s 2014 MVP year and Justin Verlander’s 2011 MVP season. That framing reflects how far his candidacy has moved beyond a standard Cy Young discussion, even if the MVP race remains a separate question.
For the Yankees, the more immediate value is October. The Yankees can build their postseason rotation around Schlittler, who is positioned to front a postseason rotation, and New York can line him up for one more regular-season start, potentially against Tampa Bay during the four-game series beginning Tuesday.
His blunt assessment after Arizona captured the urgency better than any award comparison. The Yankees still have their best pitcher performing at a historic level. What remains uncertain is whether they have left him enough games to change the division race.
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