Cue Frank

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Start spreading the news. The Yankees have a new ace.

Forty-seven years to the day the Yankees beat the Red Sox in a one-game playoff, thank you Bucky Dent, they eliminated Boston with a 4-0 win in the wild-card series Thursday night at Yankee Stadium on the strength of the big right arm of rookie Cam Schlittler.

You can be sure the Holy Schlitt! headlines will follow.

This game did not have the same drama as 1978, but for Yankee fans it was still so sweet and Schlittler was beyond magnificent. Schlittler struck out 12, did not walk a batter, allowing only five hits over eight masterful innings and retired the last nine Red Sox he faced.

To me, the Red Sox lost this wild card series in the fifth inning of Game 2 when left fielder Jarren Duran dropped Aaron Judge’s fly ball with two outs, allowing Trent Grisham to score to put the Yankees up, 3-2 on their way to a series tying 4-3 win.

Perhaps that fifth inning changes the karma for the Yankees who had that dreadful fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series last year against the Dodgers.

That Duran opening gave the Yankees life and then in the eighth inning of Game 2 Jazz Chisholm stormed home from first with the winning run on Austin Wells single down the right-field line.

After that, it was just a matter of time.

The Yankees were wondering who would step in to replace Gerrit Cole and now have the answer. 

Schlittler slammed the door shut Thursday night and more of Boston’s shoddy defense allowed the Yankees to score those four runs in the fourth and give the Bronx Bombers a trip to Toronto to start the ALDS on Saturday.

“It was a win or go home situation,’’ Schlittler said. “Now it’s onto Toronto.’’

With new hope for the Yankees.

The truth is the Red Sox only won Game 1 because the Yankee Nerds got too cute, as they always do, and they benched Jazz Chisholm and Ben Rice, an amazingly stupid way to steal the momentum from your home team to start the series.

Leave it to the Nerds.

But the Yankees overcame the Red Sox and their own Nerds. They came together as a unit these last two wins and now need to carry that into the division series.

The bottom line is these Red Sox did not deserve to be on the same field. They had no pitching and little hitting. And their young lefty pitcher Connelly Early could not come close to matching Schlittler, who is a pitching beast with a 100-mph fastball and the presence of a veteran.

The Yankees were wondering who would step in to replace Gerrit Cole and now have the answer. It was not Max Fried, who was taken out too early in Game 1 by Aaron Boone and the Nerds. It was not Carlos Rodon, who just doesn’t have that ace pedigree. It’s Cam Schlittler and suddenly the entire Yankees playoff picture and rotation looks that much brighter.

The 6-6, 225-pound Schlittler simply overpowered the Red Sox with his four-seam fastball. He established fastball command early, something many young pitchers do not do these days and then went full throttle. This was old fashioned country hardball and was fun to see in an era of pitchers not attacking hitters and always trying to outsmart hitters.

Schlittler was another amazing find by Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer, out of Northeastern University, stealing the right-hander right from under the Red Sox’ nose, a seventh-round selection in the 2022 draft. Opposing teams’ scouts have been telling me all year before the Yankees called him up, that Schlittler was the real deal.

I remember one scout telling BallNine when Schlittler was with AA Somerset, “I love everything about this kid. His mechanics, his approach – he wants to beat your ass.’’

That says it all. The Yankees called him up on July 9th.

Born in Walpole, Massachusetts, Schlittler grew up a Red Sox fan, but that has all changed now. He is pinstripes through and through. On October 2, 1978, at Fenway Park, the Yankees got a big start from their ace Ron Guidry. Thursday night it was Schlittler, who was 4-3 for the Yankees this season with a 2.96 ERA.

He stepped it up a notch and that kind of performance can lift a team to new heights.

To go deep into the playoffs, a team must have deep starting pitching. Schlittler changes the equation for the Yankees. His 12 strikeouts were the most ever by a Yankees pitcher in his postseason debut. No rookie has ever struck out more hitters in a winner-take-all postseason game.

This was a Legacy Game.

In the other wild card series, the Guardians ain’t Guardian no more in 2025. So, add another log to the fire. It is now 77 years since the Indians/G’s have won a World Series, not since way back in 1948. No surprise here with the Tigers moving on against the punchless Guardians with the 6-3 victory. The Tigers will play Seattle.

The Cubs eliminated the Padres, 3-1 and you have to wonder if AJ Preller’s time in San Diego is coming to an end. Lots of empty championship talk and trading away prospects but no real October success as the Padres, born in 1969, have never won a World Series. And just a suggestion – Luis Arraez, don’t stop running on balls in play. It’s October, you can run hard all the way through the play not like you did in the fourth inning on Thursday. The Cubs will go to Milwaukee.

As everybody expected, the “We’re No. 6’’ Reds were complete pushovers for the bullpen-less Dodgers, who swept the Reds, adding more insult to injury to the pathetic Mets, who could not even make it to the wild card. The Dodgers travel to Philadelphia.

As for Boston, may I suggest to my friend Alex Cora, the next time he gets his Red Sox together, and that would be spring training of 2026 in Ft. Myers at Fenway South, he should not even address the team. He should just march them out to the practice field and work on running the bases, especially rounding third base aggressively when the middle infielder has to make a diving stop on a ground ball and get up and throw the ball that bounces off the first baseman.

I call that the Nate Eaton Drill.

Make sure third base coach Kyle Hudson runs the drill and make sure to tell Hudson that part of the play is not to give a high five to the runner like he did with Eaton when the Red Sox blew the go-ahead run scoring opportunity like they did on that Wednesday night in the 4-3 giveaway game to the Yankees.

After the Eaton Drill, go immediately to home plate, where Eaton should have wound up, not third, go to home plate and do bunting drills.

I call that the Ceddanne Rafaela Drill.

First, tell your players not to try to bunt pitches that are a foot outside and work backwards from there. In that Game 2 loss, Rafaela put on the poorest excuse for a bunting performance I have ever seen by a light-hitting major league player. It was outlandishly pathetic. He also could not catch a critical pop fly in the fourth inning Thursday night.

After the Eaton Drill and the Rafaela Drill are complete, tell the boys to grab their gloves and go to the outfield.

I call it the Duran Drill.

Jarren Duran did just about everything wrong that is humanly possible for a speedy outfielder when he dropped – clanked is more like it – Aaron Judge’s short fly to left field in the fifth inning of Game 2 at Yankee Stadium, a play that was ridiculously called a hit by Manfred’s Scoring Warriors.

First, tell the outfielders to look around and make sure they know what ballpark they are playing in because there are a lot of ballparks. Duran was way too deep, just as Rafaela was too deep Thursday night.

The Green Monster was not backing Duran up; he had to cover all of left field in Yankee Stadium. Then tell all the outfielders something I learned freshman year of high school, try to run on the balls of your feet, not flat footed so your eyes stay focused on the baseball. Also don’t cover your face with your glove to block your vision. Use a glove that has a good pocket and is not too big and lastly when you land, do not let the elbow of your glove hand crash into the ground because that will jar the ball out of your glove.

Basic baseball stuff makes a difference, especially in the postseason.

You are going to have a busy first day Alex, but hey, at least the Red Sox won’t be taxed by deep October play.

One other point: if the opposing team does not start one of their best overall hitters, in the next game, in that hitter’s first at-bat, don’t let your pitcher groove an 87-mph cutter on a tee for a hitter like he did for Ben Rice – who was champing at the bit to swing after being told the night before to take a seat – and Rice unloaded a home run.

I will be looking forward to seeing the Red Sox address these issues. Don’t make it like spring training 2025 when a Red Sox Nerd told Hall of Famer Jim Rice to get lost and not talk hitting with the hitters. So dumb, the Red Sox could have used some of Rice’s advice considering how poorly they hit this series.

Yes, the Red Sox earned this loss in every way, including trading Rafael Devers and getting nothing in return.

Sometimes you have to work overtime to suck, and Craig Breslow & Co. deserved every inch of this embarrassment of an ending… Sweet Caroline.

Meanwhile the Yankees once again cued up Frank Sinatra Thursday night. Start spreading the news: Cam Schlittler is the Yankees new ace.