NEW YORK — Cam Schlittler struck out 13 in six overpowering innings for his first double-digit strikeout game in the regular season, and the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-0, on Friday (Saturday in Manila).
Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a solo homer and Ben Rice launched a three-run shot in the second against Rhett Lowder (3-4) as the Yankees won for the 10th time in 15 games since losing Aaron Judge to a fractured right rib. Anthony Volpe added a late RBI single.
Schlittler (8-3) notched five strikeouts on his four-seam fastball that averaged 97.9 mph. He had four strikeouts apiece on cutters and sinkers.
The right-hander threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of 23 hitters and eclipsed the 12 strikeouts he had over eight innings in the deciding Game 3 of last year’s AL Wild Card Series against rival Boston. At 25 years, 134 days, Schlittler became the youngest Yankees pitcher with 13 strikeouts since Al Downing (22 years, 359 days) also fanned 13 against the Chicago White Sox on June 21, 1964.
Schlittler also became the youngest Yankees pitcher to strike out 13 without issuing a walk. He threw 66 of 96 pitches for strikes and got his 10th strikeout when Eugenio Suárez swung at a 99.1 mph sinker to end the fourth.
Schlittler caught Matt McLain looking at a 100 mph fastball in the fifth and got his final strikeout with a 98 mph fastball against JJ Bleday in the sixth. Schlittler allowed four hits and exited to a standing ovation after stranding two runners in the sixth.
He ended the night with a 1.71 ERA, the lowest for a Yankees pitcher through 16 starts in a season since Whitey Ford was at 1.47 in 1964.
Three relievers finished a four-hitter as the Reds struck out 17 times in all.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani wasn’t in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Friday night because he is “away from the team on paternity.”
The team announced in a post on X that the two-way superstar is expected to return this weekend, meaning he wasn’t placed on Major League Baseball’s paternity list.
The team’s lineup for the series opener against the Baltimore Orioles came out less than an hour before gametime, with Ryan Ward listed as the designated hitter, and batting seventh.
Asked three hours before the game about the delayed lineup, manager Dave Roberts said he was working out “some things with some position players” and made no mention of Ohtani.
Roberts was asked about Ohtani’s sore left knee and said he had not spoken to him Friday. “Just assuming that after the off day he’s in a good spot,” the manager said.
Roberts often mentions if a player is expecting a baby and the team typically announces they have been placed on paternity leave.
Ohtani, who turns 32 on July 5, and his 29-year-old wife, Mamiko Tanaka, became first-time parents in April 2025 with the birth of their daughter. He first announced on social media in December 2024 that the couple was expecting.
