Bronx Beatdown: Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice Humiliate Boston 9-0 to Open the Wild Card Series

If this is how the Yankees plan on starting October, I am perfectly fine with it. Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series was supposed to be a stressful night in the Bronx between baseball’s biggest rivals, especially with Aaron Judge unavailable. Instead, the Yankees turned it into an absolute ass kicking. New York shut out Boston 9-0 behind another dominant postseason performance from Cam Schlittler and a ridiculous six-RBI night from Ben Rice. The Yankees finished with 12 hits, Boston managed only three, and New York is now one win away from sending the Red Sox home for the second straight postseason.

The biggest story has to start with Schlittler because this dude apparently sees a Red Sox uniform in October and transforms into prime Roger Clemens. Schlittler threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowed only two hits and struck out 10 while Aaron Boone let him work all the way to 117 pitches. This came one year after Schlittler eliminated Boston in Game 3 of the 2025 Wild Card Series by throwing eight scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts. Add those two postseason starts together and Schlittler has now thrown 14 1/3 scoreless innings with 22 strikeouts against Boston in consecutive Wild Card Series.

The performance should not really surprise anybody after the regular season Schlittler just completed. He entered Game 1 after going 14-6 with an American League-best 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts over 193 2/3 innings. He was even better against Boston, posting a 0.74 ERA across four regular-season starts. Somehow he took it up another level when the playoffs arrived. Boston knew exactly what was coming, had seen plenty of him already and still could not do anything about it.

There is also something hilarious about Schlittler doing this specifically to Boston because he grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts, went to Northeastern and was sitting right in the Red Sox’s backyard before eventually being drafted by the Yankees. Ben Rice has almost the exact same story. Rice grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, went to Dartmouth and also ended up in the Yankees organization. On Tuesday night, two Massachusetts kids basically spent three hours ruining the beginning of Boston’s postseason in Yankee Stadium.

Rice was an absolute monster. He went 4-for-5 with six RBIs, and what started as a close playoff game eventually became his personal batting practice session. Rice homered in the fifth inning to give the Yankees some breathing room, added an RBI single in the seventh and then completely ended the competitive portion of the evening with a grand slam during New York’s five-run eighth. By the time that ball left the yard, this was no longer Yankees-Red Sox playoff anxiety. It was a public execution.

The crazy part is that the Yankees did this without Judge. New York officially left its captain off the Wild Card roster Tuesday because of the right calf strain that has kept him out since September 16. Judge had pushed to play and took live batting practice Monday, but the Yankees decided that risking another setback in a three-game series was not worth potentially losing him for the rest of October. That left an enormous hole in the middle of the lineup and created the obvious question of where the offense would come from. Rice answered that question pretty emphatically.

Aaron Boone also deserves some credit because his Game 1 lineup decisions could have been absolutely roasted if this went badly. With Boston starting left-hander Payton Tolle, Boone sat several of his regular left-handed bats and loaded the lineup with right-handed options. Paul Goldschmidt led off, Rice hit second as the designated hitter, and Amed Rosario and Anthony Volpe were both inserted into the infield. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ryan McMahon and Luis Garcia Jr. all started the night on the bench. It was an aggressive postseason matchup decision, and when your team wins 9-0 with 12 hits, it is difficult to argue with the result.

Tolle was not some easy Game 1 matchup either. He entered the postseason with a 3.03 ERA and had been excellent against the Yankees during the regular season, allowing only one run over 13 innings while striking out 18 across two starts. That was part of what made this matchup interesting coming in. Boston had a young left-hander who had already proven he could handle the Yankees, while New York had arguably the best pitcher in the American League. For a while, it looked like we might get the low-scoring pitching duel everyone expected.

New York slowly made sure that did not happen. The Yankees scratched across a run in the second, Rice made it 2-0 with his fifth-inning homer, and the game remained close enough that nobody in Yankee Stadium could completely relax. That changed late. New York scored twice in the seventh and then dropped five more in the eighth. A 2-0 playoff game became 4-0 and then 9-0 in what felt like about five minutes. The Yankees finished the night with 12 hits and six runners left on base while Boston had only three hits and stranded three.

That is exactly how you want a postseason opener to unfold. Schlittler never allowed Boston to build any momentum, and the offense kept adding pressure until the Red Sox bullpen finally broke. More importantly, the Yankees never had to burn through all of their best relievers protecting a one-run lead. Paul Blackburn took over for Schlittler and covered 1 2/3 innings before John Schreiber handled the ninth, preserving the shutout and allowing Boone to get through Game 1 without turning the bullpen into a five-alarm fire.

For Boston, there really is not much positive to take away from this one. The Red Sox produced three hits in nine innings, never scored, struck out repeatedly against Schlittler and then watched the game completely fall apart once New York got into the bullpen. In a three-game series, there is no time to spend a day feeling sorry for yourself. Boston went from having an opportunity to steal Game 1 behind Tolle to immediately facing elimination Wednesday night.

And that brings us to Max Fried.

This was exactly why I wanted the Yankees to finish this series in two games. Schlittler gets Game 1, Fried gets Game 2, shake hands and please do not make me experience a winner-take-all Game 3 against Boston. Fried is scheduled to face Sonny Gray Wednesday night, with Gray coming off an 18-5 regular season with a 2.72 ERA and Fried carrying a 2.80 ERA into October. If Boston thought Tuesday night was difficult offensively, there is not exactly a comfortable matchup waiting for them 24 hours later.

The Yankees also have an enormous psychological advantage now. Boston did not lose Game 1 because of some bloop single in the ninth or questionable umpire call. They got destroyed. That does not make Wednesday’s score start at 3-0, and baseball has a funny way of making blowouts completely meaningless the next day, but Boston now has to walk back into the same building knowing another loss ends its season.

For the Yankees, the job is not finished. We have watched enough postseason baseball to know better than to celebrate winning Game 1 of a Wild Card Series like somebody is already spraying champagne. Boston only needs to win Wednesday to completely change the feeling of this series, and the last thing I want is Gerrit Cole taking the baseball Thursday with the entire season riding on it.

But there is also no reason not to enjoy what just happened.

The Yankees entered October without Aaron Judge, facing their biggest rival, with a rookie left-hander on the other side who had dominated them during the regular season. They responded by handing the baseball to Cam Schlittler and watching him bully Boston for 6 1/3 innings. Ben Rice then turned Yankee Stadium into a party with four hits, two home runs and six RBIs. The bullpen finished the shutout, the offense piled on five runs in the eighth and Boston walked off the field having been outscored 9-0 and outhit 12-3.

One down. One to go.

Give Max Fried the baseball Wednesday night and end this thing in two.