Cam Schlittler gave the Yankees exactly what a first-place team needs when the captain is still out: a grown-man start with zero nonsense attached.
The Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and no, this was not one of those cute little “team effort” recaps where everybody gets a cookie.
It was a career-high 13 strikeouts for Schlittler, his first double-digit strikeout game in the regular season, and he did it without issuing a single walk.
That is domination. That is a Reds lineup walking into the Bronx and spending most of the night either late, frozen, or guessing wrong.
Cam Schlittler Turned The Reds Into Background Noise
Schlittler did not ease into this game. Cincinnati put Blake Dunn on base to start the night after a hit-by-pitch, but that little threat died fast. JJ Bleday struck out, Dunn got caught stealing, and Spencer Stewart went down looking.
That was the first sign Cincinnati was in trouble.
The second inning made it obvious.
Nick Lowe reached on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. throwing error. Eugenio Suárez singled. Two men on. A lesser pitcher starts nibbling there and lets the inning turn into a mess.
Schlittler did the opposite.
He struck out Spencer Steer. Then Tyler Stephenson. Then Matt McLain.
Three punchouts. Inning over. Reds stranded. Yankee Stadium awake.
That is the kind of inning that tells you more than the final line. He had traffic, he had an error behind him, and he still looked like he was the one in control. That is not luck. That is stuff, command, and a little bit of attitude.
Ben Rice Keeps Looking Less Like A Hot Streak And More Like A Problem
The Yankees gave Schlittler the lead in the bottom of the second, and it started with Jazz Chisholm Jr. jumping Rhett Lowder for a solo homer to right.
1-0 Yankees.
Then Spencer Jones walked. Anthony Volpe walked. Ryan McMahon struck out. Two outs. A chance for the inning to die quietly.
Rice got a pitch and launched it to center for a three-run homer, his 21st of the season. Just like that, the Yankees were up 4-0, and with Schlittler dealing the way he was, it felt like Cincinnati needed a miracle just to make the game annoying.
Rice finished 2-for-4 with three RBI. His OPS is sitting at 1.005. At some point, people have to stop treating this like some fun side story. Rice is not just helping the Yankees survive without Aaron Judge. He is giving them real damage while the lineup is missing the biggest bat in baseball.
That is how you stay dangerous when the roster gets punched in the mouth.
Chisholm’s homer mattered because it got the Yankees out in front, but his night did not stop there. He walked, scored twice, and stole his 21st base of the season.
That is the Jazz package when it is working. Power, speed, chaos, and pressure.
Anthony Volpe also had a clean night at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. His eighth-inning single brought Chisholm home and made it 5-0, which was not exactly necessary with how the Reds were swinging, but nobody is giving runs back.
Jasson Domínguez had two hits, including a double, and that is another good sign. The Yankees do not need Domínguez trying to be Superman every night. They need him stacking quality at-bats, using the field, and looking comfortable again.
That is how this lineup has to function right now. Not one guy pretending to replace Judge. Just enough guys doing damage so the whole thing does not collapse while Judge heals up.
The Bullpen Did Not Turn It Into Theater
After Schlittler walked off to the ovation he earned, the bullpen handled the rest like adults.
Jacob Bird threw a clean seventh and struck out two. Brent Headrick worked around a walk in the eighth. David Bednar came in for the ninth and struck out two more to finish the shutout.
Yankees pitching struck out 17 Reds hitters total.
Seventeen.
Cincinnati finished with four hits, one walk, and nothing on the scoreboard. That is not a team that got unlucky. That is a team that got handled.
The Yankees Are Still Stacking Wins Without Judge
The Yankees are now 46-28, and they have won 10 of their last 15 since losing Aaron Judge to the fractured rib.
That is the part that keeps getting louder by the day.
They are not whole. They are not cruising with the perfect roster. They still have holes. They still have injuries. But they keep finding different ways to win games, and Friday night was the easiest formula in baseball: get a monster start, hit two big homers, and let the bullpen finish the job.
Schlittler lowered his ERA to 1.71, and the Yankees now have another start on the board that makes you look at this rotation a little differently.
Because when a 25-year-old right-hander is striking out 13 with no walks in the Bronx, that is not just a nice night in June.
That is a message.
The Reds came in trying to steal a game. Schlittler turned them into a stat line.
Born in Manhattan, New York, Felix Pantaleon is a Dominican-American digital content creator and the founder of NYYNEWS, one of the first and longest-running independent New York Yankees content creator platforms, active since 2005.
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