Yankees’ Cam Schlittler ‘wasn’t really worried’ after getting hit by comebacker again
MILWAUKEE – The Brewers released a little fire starter on Friday night, and the Yankees couldn’t touch him.
Cam Schlittler turned the tables the next night and was as unaffected as Jacob Misiorowski.
The only thing that touched Schlittler was a 108.5 mph comebacker that smoked his left calf in the bottom of the first inning, but after it looked like he would have to exit the game, he stayed in it to pitch six shutout innings before the Yankees wasted it in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Brewers.
“I don’t really care,” said Schlittler, who still had a football mark on his left calf after the game. “Obviously you got me right. The warm-ups weren’t very encouraging, but I was able to settle down after that.”
Schlittler limited the Brewers to two hits while striking out six. He didn’t allow a senior runner to reach second base all night as he lowered his ERA to a major-league-leading 1.35 through nine starts — four of which were scoreless. Opponents are now hitting just .177 (34-for-192) against him.
One of those hits was William Contreras’ grounder back to Schlittler in the bottom of the first.
The right-hander was in obvious pain as he tried to walk and was visited by manager Aaron Boone and head coach Tim Lentych. After some discussion, Schlittler returned to the mound and threw three warmup pitches — two of which were high, as it looked like he might be having trouble with his pitching (left) leg on his delivery.
“I’ve been trying to be tough until, ‘Tell us the truth — even here and when we’re gone,'” Boone said. “He was very angry with himself for not hitting in the warm-up pitches. That’s why he kept throwing.”
When he was allowed to stay in the game, Schlittler hit Jake Bauers with a 98 mph fastball to end the inning, though he tumbled off the mound and down the steps to the clubhouse.
After the top of the second, Schlittler didn’t rush to the mound like he usually does, and after a delay – it turned out he was still wrapping his calf inside – Boone even started to come out to talk to the home plate umpire before Schlittler finally got out of the dugout.
“Doing drills between innings, I made sure to keep it loose and not tight,” Schlittler said.
With two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 second inning, Schlittler began to dispel any fears that he might be hurt, though he has had other mishaps on the mound. In the third inning, he tripped on the mound and fell trying to get Jackson Chourio’s backfielder behind him, then appeared to lose his landing spot and was out of bounds during his next at-bat.
Contreras even hit another chopper back to Schlittler in the fourth inning, though he managed to get out of the line of fire for that one.
“I dropped a lot of balls up the middle,” said Schlittler, who was also hit by a quad in his last game. “They’re getting me right now, hopefully I’ll get some air next week.”
