Yankees 1, Phillies 0, and the final score barely covers what Cam Schlittler just did to the middle of Philadelphia's lineup.
Schlittler struck out 12 over 7.1 innings, didn't walk a single batter, and needed just 99 pitches to get there (68 of them strikes, which tells you he wasn't nibbling). Paul Goldschmidt gave him the only cushion he'd need with a solo homer in the fourth, his 16th of the year, and from there it was a question of whether the New York Yankees' bullpen could protect one run in front of 43,165 people at Citizens Bank Park. It could, barely, and it took a genuine defensive gem in the eighth to make sure of it.
Three hits, total, for the Yankees all night. Didn't matter. That's the kind of game this was.
Goldy's Answer
Jesús Luzardo was dealing too, for what it's worth (cold comfort if you're the Phillies). Seven innings, nine strikeouts, one run allowed, and the one run was the whole story. Goldschmidt turned on a sinker in the top of the fourth and drove it out to right, and that was it for the scoring on either side the rest of the night.
Tough way to lose for Luzardo, who fell to 9-5 despite matching Schlittler pitch for pitch. Jasson Domínguez chipped in the Yankees' other hit of consequence, a single, and Cody Bellinger worked a walk, but Goldschmidt's swing was the only one that mattered. He finished 1-for-4 with the RBI and two strikeouts of his own, which tells you something about how nasty both pitching staffs were on a Friday night in Philly. One mistake pitch, one run, ballgame.
The Bases-Loaded Jam
Here's where the game actually got decided. Schlittler worked into the eighth, struck out Bryson Stott for his 12th K of the night, then hit a wall -- a single to J.T. Realmuto and a hit-by-pitch to Gabriel Rincones Jr. put runners on first and second with the shutout bid still very much alive. Aaron Boone went to the bullpen for Brent Headrick, and Headrick promptly let Edmundo Sosa single to load the bases with one out.
Trea Turner up. Then Kyle Schwarber on deck. The tying run 90 feet away with two of Philadelphia's best hitters due up, and this is the part where a one-run road lead usually turns into a bad flight home.
It didn't. Turner scorched a 95.5 mph liner to left that Cody Bellinger ran down for the second out, and Schwarber grounded out to second to end it. That's the whole game, right there -- a one-run lead that survives a bases-loaded jam with the heart of the order at the plate is a lead that deserved to hold. David Bednar closed it out clean in the ninth for his 19th save, and that was that.
Schlittler Was Filthy
Whatever conversation Yankees fans want to have about workload and pitch counts, start with this: 12 strikeouts, zero walks, three hits allowed, and he came out after just one out in the eighth. He's 10-6 now. Boone had a hook ready given the state of the game and the shutout still alive, and it's hard to second-guess a decision that ends in a Bednar save, but Schlittler was cruising all night (99 pitches through 7.1 is not a guy running out of gas) and you could feel the building wanting him to go finish it himself.
He didn't need to. That's the encouraging part. When your bullpen can go get the last five outs of a one-run game on the road and make it look almost routine, you're doing something right in July.
The Yankees are 58-45 now, two games back of Tampa Bay in the East, winners of two straight, and up 1-0 in this series with two more to play at Citizens Bank Park. Nobody's circling this one on the calendar in October, but a 12-strikeout shutout bid from your starter and a bullpen that survives a bases-loaded jam is exactly the kind of game that ages well down the stretch.
If Schlittler's setting the tone for the weekend, the Yankees will gladly take it.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
