The Yankees have stormed Fenway and taken their first series meeting with the Red Sox, and now they stand on the precipice of opening the season series up with a sweep. Their pitching has kept the Sox shut down thus far, tossing a shutout in the first game and allowing a single run in the ninth inning of game two. While the two teams have been on different trajectories to start the year, this matchup has only furthered the gap with a chance to punt them further down into the cellar of the AL East.
Now the baton passes over to Cam Schlittler to get the job done, and while it’s nowhere near the same scenario as the last time he lined up against them there’s a familiar vibe to this start. Schlittler was the man most responsible for ending Boston’s season last year, pitching eight shutout innings in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series and striking out a dozen batters in the process. This time around the Sox aren’t dead in the water if they lose, but a poor April can doom a team in this division especially when you tip the season series heavily in the favor of a team that you know you’ll be chasing all year. They certainly can’t be thrilled that they’re facing the young phenom here in this moment, even if the thought of revenge is on most of their batters’ minds.
That outing was by far the highlight of Schlittler’s 2025 season, as he delivered a generational postseason performance for the Yankees’ staff. He was excellent in his regular season starts, earning his way into the circle of trust for an October outing in the first place despite debuting midway through the year, but no one could have expected him to go out and carve up Boston. Now the expectations have heightened considerably for him in his sophomore season, and he’s somehow managing to deliver. He’s the owner of a sparkling 1.95 ERA thus far, but his FIP is even more outstanding at 0.87 — that’s the kind of potential that the Yankees haven’t seen out of a pitching prospect in ages, and it’s coming closer to fruition with each successful start. Add onto that how down-trodden the Sox currently look offensively, and there’s a perfect storm building for the brooms to kick up a lot of dust as they get brought out.
Baseball rarely plays to expectations, though. The better a team plays, the more surprising the random pitfalls that they go through become. And even the best teams are going to drop dozens of games that make you scratch your head and wonder “how did they lose that?” So with the stage set for Schlittler to take it to his hometown team once more, will he live up to that hype? Can he manage to beat it even? Or will the Sox protect their pride and answer back, adding another page into this chapter of the rivalry?
Today on the site, we’ve got a full schedule leading up to the series finale. Peter starts us off by looking at Luis Gil’s recent stellar outing against the Sox for the Sequence of the Week, and then I’ll handle the Rivalry Roundup. Jeff wishes newly-minted Hall of Famer Andruw Jones a happy birthday and reminisces on his playing career, John muses on the modern bullpen building methods that the Yankees have deployed, Kento considers the recent wave of early extensions that teams have been handing out and how it tempers the ability to rely on free agent retooling, and Peter returns to examine the resurgence of the sinker in the Yankee organization.
Today’s Matchup
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
Time: 6:10 p.m. EST
Video: YES Network, NESN+, FS1
Venue: Fenway Park, Boston, MA
Read the full article here