The Yankees won the series opener against the Cincinnati Reds

In the series opener against the Reds, who have been a National League team since 1890, the Yankees won 5–0 at Yankee Stadium after yet another dominant start by Cam Schlittler. Schlittler had a season-high and career-high 13 strikeouts and has now allowed just two runs in his last three starts in a span of 18.2 innings pitched.

In the Yankees’ previous series, they won two out of three games against the Chicago White Sox. The Yankees outscored the White Sox 22–7 in the first two games of that series and in each of those two games every batter in the lineup had at least one hit. In the series finale, former Yankee Andrew Benintendi hit a pinch hit grand slam to break a tie in the eighth inning. Chicago had lost their previous nine games in the Bronx.

This series against the Reds is the first time the two teams have played each other since the Reds won two out of three against the Yankees in Cincinnati from June 23–25 last season. The Reds won the first game 5–1 and then they won the second game 5–4 in extra innings. Coming into this series, the Reds won two out of three at home against the Mets in their previous series. Before that series against the Mets, the Reds had lost their previous five series and in that span they went 4–11 in 15 games. The Reds were 20–11 on April 30 but then they went on an 8-game losing streak.

Schlittler has pitched so well in his second Major League season that as of now he would deserve to start in the All-Star Game. Schlittler threw six scoreless innings while allowing just four hits and not walking a batter. He threw a first pitch strike to 15 of the 23 batters he faced and he threw a first pitch strike to 66 of the 96 batters he faced. He has allowed one run or less in 12 of his 16 starts this season.

He has allowed one walk or fewer in 10 of his 16 starts. He leads the league in all of these categories: ERA (1.71), WAR (3.8), ERA+ (230), FIP (2.31), hits per nine innings (6.4) and homers per nine innings (0.5). His 109 strikeouts are second most in the AL and the only pitcher who has more is Dylan Cease, who has 110 strikeouts. Schlittler .194 batting average against is the best in the AL. He has been the best pitcher in the AL this season in just his second MLB season.

The Yankees took a 4–0 lead in the second inning on a solo homer and a 3-run homer. Jazz Chisholm, the day after having to leave Friday’s game due to fouling a ball where he would never want a foul ball to go, hit a solo homer that went 390 feet to right field. Chisholm now has five homers and 11 RBI in his last 14 games after having three homers in his previous 29 games played. Later in the second inning, Ben Rice had a deep 433 foot 3-run homer to center that scored Spencer Jones and Anthony Volpe. Rice now has 20 homers in 68 games this season after having 26 homers in 138 games last season. Rice went 2–4 and has gone 8–25 with three homers and seven RBI during his six game hitting streak.

Schlittler has an 8–3 record this season and the Yankees are 12–4 in games that Schlittler has started. Schlittler had the seventh fastest average fastball velocity in the league coming into this start. Schlittler allowed a single to Eugenio Suarez in the second inning and was still frustrated by his pitch selection in that at-bat after the game even after dominating in the rest of his start against the Reds. That says a lot about his mentality.

Schlittler had 12 strikeouts, zero walks and zero runs allowed in the wild card round against the Red Sox in 2025. He had 13 strikeouts, zero walks allowed and zero runs allowed in this game against the Reds. He is the only pitcher in MLB history to have a scoreless start with at least 12 strikeouts and no walks in both the regular season and the postseason. Schlittler is the youngest Yankees pitcher (24 years old and 153 days) with 13 strikeouts in a game since Al Downing in 1964. Downing was the first African American player in Yankees franchise history.

Schlittler had nine strikeouts through 3.2 innings which tied a season high. He then struck out Suarez on a 99 mph sinker to strike out the side in the fourth for his 10th strikeout, which is a new season-high. Schlittler threw his fastball really well in this game and the Reds are not very good at hitting fastballs at high end velocity as a team. He struck out second baseman Edwin Arroyo looking on a 98 mph sinker to end the 5th. Schlittler had his career high 13th strike out when he struck out left fielder JJ Bleday for the first out of the sixth. Bleday, who has a very good .365 OBP in 46 games this season, went 0–3 with three strikeouts in this game.

Nathaniel Lowe, who is in his eighth MLB season, had a line drive single to center off of Schlittler to put runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth. Schlittler got Spencer Steer, who went 0–4 with two strikeouts, to hit into a fielder’s choice ground out to third to end the 6th inning.

Reds starting pitcher Rhett Lowder, who now has a 4.82 ERA in his 11 starts this season, allowed four earned runs with three walks and two homers in 5.1 innings. The 24-year-old allowed just one run in 5.2 innings in his previous start last week at home against the Diamondbacks. When he faced the Pirates in Pittsburgh on May 2, Lowder allowed eight runs in just 1.1 innings, which sent his ERA up from 3.18 to 5.09.

Ryan McMahon had a single in the top of the fifth. He has been hitting better the last few weeks and he has been going the other way more in that span. In McMahon’s last 18 games, he is 14–50 (.280) with four homers, seven runs scored and seven RBI. He has raised his average from .187 to .212 and has raised his OPS from .559 to .635 in his last 18 games.

The fifth run that the Yankees scored in this game came in the eighth inning when Volpe had an RBI single to left to score Jazz Chisholm, who walked earlier in the inning. Volpe also had a single in the sixth inning. Volpe went 2–3 in this game and is 10–20 with two doubles, a triple and five RBI during his current six-game hitting streak. During the hitting streak, he has increased his average from .190 to .265, he has increased his OBP from .301 to .371 and he has increased his OPS from .587 to .757.

Jake Bird retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the seventh inning. This was a good bounce back game for the 30-year-old after he had allowed one earned run in each of his previous three games and had allowed one run in five of his last seven games. Brent Headrick, who had 0.82 ERA in last 13 games, pitched a scoreless eighth inning with just one walk allowed. Headrick’s ERA has gone down from 2.31 to 1.78 in his last 14 games. He has been a better pitcher so far this season than the Yankees expected him to be. David Bednar got a strikeout on a splitter to end the game. Bednar retired the side in order with two strikeouts and pitched in this game in a non save situation since he had gone four days in a row without pitching in a game. He has now not allowed a run in each of his last nine games in a span of 9.2 innings to lower his ERA from 5.14 to 3.52.

After the game, Knicks champion Josh Hart tweeted that Schlittler should be the Cy Young winner. Hart and Finals MVP Jalen Brunson threw out the first pitch during the White Sox series in honor of the Knicks winning the championship. Schlittler was appreciative to have the support of really good, high energy, player on the Knicks.

“It’s a good thing to hear,” Schlittler said. “Josh is a great guy. It talked to him after their first playoff game. I am pumped for him and the city of New York, being able to finish that off and it’s great to have his support.”

Schlittler has a goal of winning the championship at the end of this season like the Knicks did last week on Saturday, which was their first championship in 53 years. If the Yankees win the World Series this year then they will have won their first title since 2009.

“The city hasn’t seen a championship in a long time,” Schlittler said of the Knicks. “I’m pumped for those guys. Now it’s our turn. I think there’s a lot of guys in here that have a s — ton of accolades, but some guys are missing that World Series. That’s kind of the biggest priority when I look at what my goals are — it’s winning a championship.”