Gut Check Time: Both The Yankees and Red Sox Turn To Rookie Starting Pitchers In Tonight's Win or Go Home Game 3
Here we go, Thursday night in the Bronx winner heads to Toronto for the ALDS, loser goes home and sees their season end. The pitching matchup? Two rookies, New York's Cam Schlittler and Boston's Connelly Early. Both arms have shown a lot of promise in limited action so far.
Connelly Early: 2.33 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 29 K, 4 BB, 0 HR in 19.1 IP
Cam Schlittler: 2.96 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 84 K, 31 BB, 8 HR in 73 IP
Early will become the first pitcher ever to take the ball in a winner-take-all postseason game within 30 days of his MLB debut. He's raw, but boy is he good. With Early you're going to get a lot of swing and miss with a great variety with his pitch mix. Fastball, cutter, change, sinker, slider, sweeper. He's got a lot in that bag that can give you trouble.
Despite being a rookie who just made his debut, and his actual name being Todd, he seems like a dude who should handle the nerves of the situation pretty well.
I said this at the start of the series, but Giolito's injury to have him taken off the roster wasn't the end of the world. It hurts them more long term in the postseason than it does in the immediate. Giolito was on fumes to end the year and there's some familiarity with the Yankees hitters. With Early you get a kid with nasty stuff who no one has seen before on the Yankees side, outside of one Giancarlo Stanton rehab stint. That mystery gives me legit concern. Having no stats to back it up, I feel like New York struggles more often than not the first time seeing a guy.
On the Yankees' side of things they hand the ball to Cam Schlittler, who got the call up during the summer after Clarke Schmidt went down needing Tommy John surgery. Since his debut he's really been special and performed better than anyone could have asked for. We're talking easy gas with a fastball that averages 98 and can touch 101.
The cutter is a weapon as well.
The breaking ball, however, is a work in progress. Some night it's on and dropping off the plate, but on off nights he can't locate it for shit. He's a little bit of a reverse splits guy and favors better vs. righties which will make Cora's lineup construction interesting to see when it comes out.
What happens after the starting pitchers exit is the real mystery here. Cora yanked Bello after 28 pitches yesterday. What will Early's leash be if there's any sort of struggling going on? You're going to Kyle Harrison or Payton Tolle afterwards as your bridge to the actual relievers. As for Schlittler, he almost has to give you 5 innings to make you feel like you got a chance, no? This pen is thin as shit and you can't count with just one hand the amount of guys you trust. If Cam doesn't have it, and he's a rookie he very well may not, then you're going to probably Will Warren out of the pen first? He performs way better at home than on the road, but he doesn't come out of the pen at all.
It's a kitchen sink game, everything is on the table. The most terrifying part of all this is Aaron Boone and his decision making. While it seemed he made the right call in riding Rodon for the rest of the 6th, he turned that all on its head and sent him back out for the 7th where he clearly had nothing left. Just one of many moves he's made that makes me want to die inside. There's going to be big decisions late and it just feels like Boone will always make the wrong one. Scoring a lot of runs in the beginning of the game is paramount to reduce the importance of his decision making.
Lineups are just coming out as I'm wrapping up the blog. Going with Rosario at 3rd with the better splits vs. a lefty. Schlittler less of a ground ball guy so less importance (I hope) with 3B defense. McMahon will come in for defense pretty early I imagine. Love Rice at first. Wells catching. Goldy on the bench ready to be deployed for a lefty reliever later on then come in for defense in the late innings. Had to start Rice.
Sox lineup just dropped as well. Yoshida, Romy, Abreu, and Lowe in there.
I'm shitting myself thinking about first pitch. See you all at 8:08 EST on the stream with Hogdale on the call once again.
Go Yankees.