Yankees Ace Cam Schlittler Calls Himself Out for Home ERA Disaster: ‘I’ve Got To Be Better’
Cam Schlittler is having an AL Cy Young season. Just not at Yankee Stadium.
The second-year Yankees pitcher walked into Monday’s start against the Cardinals with a 3.83 home ERA. He walked out with a 4.32 home ERA after allowing four earned runs on four hits and five walks over just three innings in a 13-7 loss. His road ERA sits at 1.10 with a 0.74 WHIP across 14 games. Two completely different pitchers in the same body.
Schlittler was honest about it after the game.
“I feel fine. I didn’t get in that rhythm,” he told the New York Post’s Dan Martin and Brian Lewis. “I’ve just got to be better. Things have been a lot easier on the road. I feel like I’ve been dominant on the road and haven’t been able to do that here. And it’s frustrating. At some point, we’ve got to make an adjustment, and I’ve got to perform in front of the fans.”
He added, “The bad ones I have are always here, and that’s frustrating. Things should be easier here playing in front of our fans. Frustrating for them, too. They come here expecting good performances and not being able to deliver.”
This is the kind of split that keeps a pitching coach up at night. There is nothing obviously different about the Bronx mound versus a road mound. The ball is the same, the strike zone is the same, the catcher is the same. What changes is the crowd, the routine, and whatever mental adjustments a young pitcher makes when he steps into his home ballpark. Whatever it is, Schlittler has to figure it out fast.
The Yankees are 63-50 and clinging to a playoff position in an AL East that has been unforgiving. Their bullpen imploded Monday, letting a 7-6 lead turn into a six-run loss. That is another story for another day. The starting rotation cannot afford to leak innings, and Schlittler is supposed to be the guy who does not.
His road numbers say he is elite. A 1.10 ERA and a WHIP under 0.75 across 14 games is legitimate Cy Young material. Any AL voter looking at the full body of work has him in the conversation with Framber Valdez and whoever wins the Rangers rotation battle. The issue is that October playoff games happen a lot at Yankee Stadium if the Yankees advance, and the version of Schlittler who pitches in the Bronx has not shown up consistently.
There is a version of this that resolves itself. Young pitchers work through home-road splits all the time. Sometimes it is mechanical, sometimes it is mental, sometimes it is bad luck bunched up in one venue. Schlittler has his next opportunity on Sunday to start fixing it.
The Yankees need him to. They cannot go into October wondering which Cam Schlittler shows up depending on the postal code.
Cy Young voters remember 6-0 leads that got blown up.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
