Cam Schlittler delivered a career-best 13 strikeouts and a 5-0 Yankees win over the Cincinnati Reds, lowering his American League-leading ERA to 1.71 in a start that featured no walks and six scoreless innings at Yankee Stadium.
Cam Schlittler walked to the mound at Yankee Stadium on Friday night with one goal you could feel from the way the game was trending: make Cincinnati’s bats uncomfortable early, and keep them that way.
It worked fast. Schlittler struck out a career-high 13 Cincinnati Reds hitters and led the New York Yankees to a 5-0 win. lowering his American League-leading ERA to 1.71. In the process. he worked six scoreless innings on 96 pitches. allowed four hits. and issued no walks—earning his eighth win of the season. which came in a line of 8-3.
The 13 strikeouts weren’t just his best number yet. They topped his previous career high of 12. a mark he set in Game 3 of last year’s American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox. This time. though. the damage was more relentless. as he whiffed hitters through the middle of Cincinnati’s order and never truly let the Reds get comfortable.
By the time the sixth inning closed. Schlittler had already built a season mark that belongs in the Yankees record book. His 1.71 ERA through 16 starts became the lowest by a Yankees pitcher over that period since Whitey Ford posted a 1.47 ERA in 1964. It also ranked as the fourth-lowest mark in MLB history through a pitcher’s first 16 starts of a season among qualified starters.
There was also a sharp sense of how rare the performance was in franchise terms. Schlittler became the youngest Yankees pitcher since Al Downing in 1964 to record a 13-strikeout, no-walk outing. At 25 years and 134 days old. he also set a Yankees franchise record as the youngest New York player ever to reach 13 strikeouts in a game without issuing a walk.
He got there with precision. Schlittler threw 66 of his 96 pitches for strikes and generated 18 whiffs on 49 swings. The blueprint for the outing looked simple once you watched it unfold: velocity first, then shapes off that fastball. Cincinnati entered the game as the weakest MLB club against pitches 95 mph or faster. hitting just .194 with a .305 slugging percentage. and Schlittler used his high-velocity arsenal to keep them guessing.
Nearly all of his strikeouts came from his sinker, four-seam fastball, and cutter. His four-seamer averaged 97.9 mph and produced five strikeouts. He also recorded four strikeouts each with his cutter and sinker.
The pitch mix told the story of a pitcher leaning into what was working. Schlittler used the sinker on 41 of his 96 pitches—more than doubling its usual usage rate—while throwing 32 four-seam fastballs and 20 cutters. He barely relied on his curveball. Over those six innings. the Reds went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. kept off balance throughout and unable to string together the kind of contact that changes a night.
His recent run only reinforced the feeling that this start wasn’t a one-off. Schlittler has now allowed just two runs over his last 18 2/3 innings across three starts.
The Yankees didn’t need to chase the game. They helped it along early with home runs from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice. Chisholm homered in his return to the lineup, and Rice added a three-run blast—his team-leading 21st home run. Rice’s homer accounted for New York’s only hit with a runner in scoring position until the eighth inning. keeping the focus on Schlittler’s control and the bullpen’s follow-through.
When the starter’s night ended, New York protected the shutout. The bullpen preserved it with scoreless appearances from Jake Bird, Brent Headrick, and David Bednar. Together, they secured the Yankees’ eighth shutout of the season.
Schlittler’s performance will sit with the kind of memory that’s hard to shake: 13 strikeouts. no walks. and a season ERA that keeps dropping. For a franchise that measures greatness in names like Whitey Ford and milestones from the 1960s. Friday night’s result felt like more than a win—it felt like a standard setting a new line for what a Yankees start can look like.
Cam Schlittler New York Yankees Cincinnati Reds Yankee Stadium 5-0 win 13 strikeouts ERA 1.71 AL-leading ERA Whitey Ford Al Downing Ben Rice Jazz Chisholm Jr. shutout David Bednar Jake Bird Brent Headrick