It didn’t take long for Cam Schlittler to show he was ready for this moment.
The Yankees’ rookie right-hander began Thursday night’s do-or-die Wild Card Game 3 by pumping 100-mph fastball after 100-mph fastball, overpowering the Boston Red Sox in a statement 1-2-3 first inning.
And that was just the start.
In a dominant postseason debut, Schlittler hurled eight scoreless innings in a 4-0 win in the Bronx, sending the Yankees to the ALDS and eliminating their archrival in the process.
The Yankees will face the Blue Jays in the ALDS, with that series set to begin Saturday afternoon in Toronto.
Schlittler, who grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Mass., began the season at Double-A Somerset but quickly shot up the Yankees system and made his MLB debut in July.
He entered Thursday with only 14 MLB starts under his belt, but the Yankees entrusted the flame-throwing 24-year-old with Thursday’s winner-take-all Game 3 after he went 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA in the regular season.
The Red Sox countered with a promising rookie of their own, turning to left-hander Connelly Early, who made his MLB debut less than a month ago and pitched to a 2.33 ERA in four starts.
The stoic Schlittler outdueled his counterpart, racking up 12 strikeouts behind a fastball that averaged 99.0 mph and maxed out at 100.8 mph. The 12 strikeouts set a single-game playoff record for a Yankees rookie.
Boston managed only five hits — all singles — against Schlittler, who did not issue a walk over his 107 pitches. Only one Red Sox baserunner reached second base, and Schlittler escaped that fifth-inning jam with a three-pitch strikeout of Jarren Duran.
“He’s got a really good way about him,” manager Aaron Boone said ahead of Schlittler’s stellar start. “Really confident kid. He expects to go out there and pitch well. I saw him right before he left last night, and he was ready to go. … I don’t think the moment will be too big for him.”
Schlittler was at 100 pitches when he finished the seventh by striking out Wilyer Abreu with a 99-mph fastball.
A sellout crowd of 48,833 erupted when Schlittler emerged from the dugout for the top of the eighth. He needed only seven pitches to work through his final inning, which was aided by third baseman Ryan McMahon making a running catch in foul territory, then holding on as he flipped into the Red Sox dugout.
“For [Boone] to put faith in me and we get to Game 3, that means a lot,” Schlittler said ahead of the game. “So just making sure I am taking it as another game and going to do my job.”
Early, meanwhile, got the start because veteran right-hander Lucas Giolito was left off of Boston’s Wild Card roster due to an elbow injury.
The 23-year-old Early matched Schlittler by keeping the Yankees off the board through three innings, but they got to him for four runs in the fourth.
Cody Bellinger began that rally with a bloop double, and three batters later, Amed Rosario drove him in with an RBI single for the Yankees’ first run.
Anthony Volpe added an RBI single, and the Yankees scored two more runs when Boston first baseman Nathaniel Lowe failed to field a bases-loaded chopper off the bat of Austin Wells for a costly error.
That was plenty of run support for Schlittler and David Bednar, who nailed down the Yankees’ victory with a scoreless ninth inning.
After dropping Game 1, the Yankees bounced back with victories in Games 2 and 3 to win the best-of-three Wild Card series.
This is the first time since MLB introduced the best-of-three format in 2022 that a team has advanced after losing Game 1.
It’s also the first time the Yankees have defeated the Red Sox in a playoff series since the 2003 ALCS, when Boone struck his famed walk-off home run in Game 7. The Red Sox had eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs three times since then.
The Yankees now turn their attention to the Blue Jays, whom they are set to meet in the postseason for the first time.
The Yankees (94-68) finished with the same record as Toronto in the regular season, but the AL East crown went to the Blue Jays via tiebreaker because they won the head-to-head season series, 8-5.
Games 1 and 2 will take place over the weekend in Toronto before the ALDS shifts back to the Bronx on Tuesday.
