BRONX, NY — It’s becoming a rite of passage for Cam Schlittler to dominate the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, and so are monster nights from Ben Rice.
One year after going eight scoreless in a Game 3 clincher with 12 strikeouts, the Yankees’ ace and AL Cy Young favorite shut down the BoSox in a 9-0 Game 1 romp on Tuesday night in the Bronx, going 6.1 shutout innings, allowing one hit, and striking out 10 on 117 pitches.
While his offense was slow to arrive, Rice ultimately made it a laugher, going 4-for-5 with two home runs, one being a grand slam, a double, and six RBI.
The slugger’s game-breaking grannie came in the bottom of the eighth inning in what was already a 5-0 game, taking a 3-2 sinker from Brayan Bellow 408 feet into the bullpen in right-center field.
It marked the 16th grand slam in Yankees postseason history, while Rice became the first Bronx Bomber with a multi-home-run game in a playoff game since Giancarlo Stanton in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Schlittler generated a career-high 24 whiffs, ensuring that the unstoppable train that was his regular-season momentum remained undeterred. Including a historic regular season that should also garner him some MVP consideration, Schlittler’s 2026 ERA is now down to 1.89.
His career stats against Boston are even better: Six career starts, 38.2 innings pitched, 0.47 ERA, 49 strikeouts.
Red Sox catcher Adley Rutschman accounted for the first hit off New York’s ace — a one-out, first-inning single to center. Schlittler responded by retiring the next 13 men he faced before issuing a walk to Jarren Duran with two outs in the fifth.
It appeared his night would be over after a 1-2-3, two-strikeout sixth inning, bringing his total to an already career-high 107 pitches, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave him the start of the seventh. After getting Willson Contreras to line out, Wilyer Abreu singled as the final batter of Schlittler’s night.
His complete arsenal was humming, most notably a seldom-used curveball that garnered just 21 of his 239 strikeouts during the regular season, but got three of his first five punchouts of the night.
Somewhat lost within the shuffle of it all is the hard-luck loss for Red Sox starter Payton Tolle — the increasingly likeable character who limited the Yankees to one run on five hits with four strikeouts and one walk in 4.2 innings of work.
After getting two quick outs in the fifth, and on just 83 pitches, the left-handed Tolle was lifted for another southpaw, Erik Miller, to face Rice. On the third pitch, the Yankees’ slugger smashed a hanging sinker 423 feet to dead center to double the hosts’ lead.
With ace Garrett Crochet — who shut New York down in Game 1 of last year’s Wild Card — being used as a reliever after just getting back from the IL, the 23-year-old played the role of ace just fine, albeit not long enough. That line is all the more impressive when considering he became the youngest Red Sox pitcher to start a postseason game since Babe Ruth in the 1918 World Series.
The Yankees’ lone run off Tolle came in the second when Austin Wells ripped a two-out, RBI single to right to score George Lombard Jr., who collected a single in his first-career postseason at-bat.
Rice added on some more Yankees insurance in the bottom of the seventh when, after two straight hits and a walk to lead off the frame against reliever Alec Gamboa, he lined an RBI single to right to make it a 3-0 game. Pinch-hitter Luis Garcia Jr. grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, which scored New York’s fourth.
Rice then put the game away in the eighth when, after a Wells sacrifice fly made it 5-0, he hit his third career postseason home run.
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