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If it was not obvious before, New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler has given his ultimatum on what it means to play under manager Aaron Boone.
“It’s awesome, he’s the man. The guys love him, they respect him. A player-first manager, and that’s really all you can ask for. I’ve had great conversations with him, and I feel like the respect is mutual. And regardless of what they’re saying out there, I think he’s been great for us.” Schlittler said on On Base with Mookie Betts.
This comes after Schlittler chose not to pitch in the All-Star Game, but in his first start since then, he faced a lineup that was certainly star-studded.
The Los Angeles Dodgers made it a tough day for Cam and the Yankees on Sunday with an 8-2 loss that forced Cam out of the game in the fifth inning.
Cam racked up a career-high 20 swings-and-misses and eight strikeouts, but at the same time, the Dodgers fouled off 27 pitches, including 16 with two strikes. They made him throw 98 pitches across 4 ¹/₃ innings in which he gave up three runs.
“As a starter, [if] you can’t get through five, that’s not a good sign,” Schlittler said. “I think that’s the most frustrating part.”
He also had some firing strike outs in the top of the first inning on 17 pitches, including whiffing Shohei Ohtani on a 100mph fastball.
“I feel like the miss was there, the strikeouts are good, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t put a competitive outing together. They made me battle.”
And this is where Boone’s player-manager role comes out, as he defended Schlittler’s outing on Sunday.
Aaron Boone Reacts to the Outing
The Yankees manager backed Cam after the game, pointing out the volume of deep counts and extended at-bats as the reason he could not work deeper into the game despite missing plenty of the bats.
“I thought Cam was really good, but they did [have] a lot of heavy at-bats,” Boone said. “He had a ton of swing-and-miss going, which was getting him into 2-2 and 3-2 counts, and then they did a pretty good job of extending some at-bats with a lot of foul balls.”
Lastly, Boone described the game as death by a thousand cuts rather than a performance issue.
The Yankees went on to win the next game 2-1, followed by a solid 8-5 performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates, whom they will be facing in their next two games as well.
So, with a 56-44 record for the season, holding a Wild Card spot and sitting in second place in the AL East, do you think the Aaron Judge-less Yankees have the right mindset going forward? Let us know in the comments.
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