There’s a chance that Cam Schlittler broke the brains of Boston Red Sox fans. In Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series, the New York Yankees weren’t sure what they were getting with Schlittler, but by the end of the night, the rookie, who had shown flashes of greatness throughout the year, put on a master class against a team he grew up rooting for.
Eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts in a start, which is a record for a Yankees postseason debut, must have felt good after Boston fans went after his mom earlier that week. Their social media barrage against Momma Schlittler began after she said their family was rooting for the Yankees.
After the start, Schlittler trolled Boston fans every chance he could on social media. It was vengeance for his mom after that stellar start. That week marked the beginning of a blood feud between the athlete and the sports fans he grew up around.
It looks like Schlittler and Boston are ready for another round of battle. This week, he’ll be facing the Red Sox at Fenway Park, and, of course, those New Englanders have turned up the pressure on Schlittler.
Death threats
According to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, Schlittler and his family have been getting death threats. He did mention that he didn’t think his family needed to be concerned about their safety, but he took another jab at them, calling this specific sect of fans die-hards who have “nothing else in their lives” other than rooting for their sports teams.
When asked about his expectations for this week against Boston, he expects Fenway Park to be loud. He won’t have many fans that day — nor should he.
“It’s gonna be bad. It’s gonna be bad,” Schlittler told Joel Sherman. “I’m not nervous about it. But it’s gonna be loud. They’re gonna probably have dudes that are my age or a little bit younger, sitting right outside the [visiting] bullpen [that is mostly exposed in right field], yelling, whatever, probably throwing stuff at me, trying to grab me. That’s kind of what I expect. So I know the guys are excited for it and I’m excited for it.”
The Red Sox vs. Cam
Unless Schlittler cracks under the pressure, or a Red Sox team that is proving to be one of the worst in the sport perfectly scouts the nasty 25-year-old who is coming into the season with a 1.95 ERA in 27.2 innings, he may lower his ERA further. You never know with baseball, of course, and anything can happen, but Schlittler is becoming must-see TV, and that Boston start could be his most heavily anticipated since the Wild Card Game.
As a team, the Red Sox have a paltry 84 wRC+ this season. Their 24.3% k rate is the tenth-best in the sport, and they aren’t a team that’s striking out a lot, but few are better at generating whiffs than Schlittler. In those 27.2 innings, he has 36 strikeouts.
If he has to get the Red Sox out by having them hit for weak contact, that shouldn’t be an issue either. Teams have averaged an 87.2 mph exit velocity off of Schlittler with a 6.2% barrel rate.
With the way Schlittler and Red Sox fans have been feuding, he’ll probably be happy to get the outs any way he can. If he puts up zeroes and has another work of art on the mound, it shouldn’t matter how he paints his picture against them. Just that there’s another bad night at Fenway.
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