When you have to go back to Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game to put something in perspective, a pitcher just did something incredible.
New York Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler just did something incredible.
Schlittler’s line to knock the Boston Red Sox out of the postseason will become the stuff of legend if the Yanks make a deep postseason run: 8.0 innings, 5 hits allowed, 12 strikeouts in shutout baseball.
He had never before gone eight innings in his MLB career, or struck out a dozen hitters, or walked nobody.
On this night, he did all three.
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The last player to accomplish all three of those feats for the first time was the Chicago Cubs’ then-phenom Wood, who did it all in a brilliant 20-strikeout performance in 1998, according to OptaStats.
Schlittler did so many incredible things Thursday night.
He hit 100 miles per hour six times in the first inning.
He looked like he might be done in a couple of different frames, just based on assumptions about his pitch count. But then he was so good that the Yankees just let him roll.
The Red Sox couldn’t touch him, and mostly, it was the fastball, with a little bit of secondary stuff mixed in.
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To be fair, 12 strikeouts is not 20 strikeouts, but that Wood game also wasn’t in the playoffs against his biggest rival.
Schlittler grew up a Red Sox fan. This was different.
And he’ll never forget it.
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