1. If the playoffs started today, Cam Schlittler should be the Yankees’ Game 1 starter. But if the playoffs started today, I don’t think he would be. And when the playoffs do start, even if Schlittler continues this all-time season, I still don’t think he will be the Yankees’ Game 1 starter. In a year in which Schlittler leads the American League in ERA and WHIP and is second in innings pitched (Michael Wacha) and strikeouts (Dylan Cease) and has made all 22 starts to date, there’s no other choice, even though it would surprise no one if the Yankees made another choice, and they likely will since veteran status and reputation have always trumped actual performance in determining playing time and rotation setting.
Schlittler dominated the Phillies on Friday with 7 1/3 scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts. It was his best start of the season and the best regular-season start of his career as the Yankees won 1-0.
“He bullies you a little bit with the fastball on both sides,” Don Mattingly said. “I don’t think this guy’s getting hit very hard often.”
No, he’s not, Donnie Baseball. It was the 17th time in 22 starts Schlittler has pitched at least five innings and allowed two earned runs or fewer. The Yankees improved to 15-7 when he starts. In three of those seven losses, he went at least five innings and allowed two earned runs or fewer.
2. A Paul Goldschmidt home run was the entire offense for both teams on Friday. The Yankees’ and Phillies’ offenses are very similar in being top-heavy and completely reliant on home runs. It’s why both teams have had very similar postseason exits over the last five seasons. They both have a World Series loss, they both have a CS loss and the Phillies have two DS losses to the Yankees’ one. (The Phillies have made the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, while the Yankees missed the postseason in 2023 despite 40 percent of the league qualifying for the postseason.) And because the teams are nearly identical in how their lineups are built, there were five total runs in the first 18 innings of the series.
The Yankees won Saturday’s game 3-1 behind a surprising Ryan Weathers’ start (5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) and home runs from Austin Wells and Jasson Dominguez. The Phillies’ bullpen game consisted of seven relievers, and the Yankees were able to score off of three of them.
3. Maybe you can’t truly predict baseball, but Sunday’s result was as predictable as the sport gets. Will Warren against Christopher Sanchez with a lineup featuring Amed Rosario batting third, Dominguez fourth and Anthony Volpe fifth? Due for an offensive outburst after the first two games of the series, the Phillies scored once off Warren in the first, once again in the second and opened the game up with four runs in the third on their way to an 11-4 win. Warren lasted only three innings and allowed six earned runs and eight baserunners. It was the fourth time this season Warren allowed six-plus earned runs in a game, while all other Yankees pitchers have done so just three times (thanks to Katie Sharp for the stat). Warren’s four starts of six-plus earned runs allowed are the second-most in the AL (also from Sharp). Jeffrey Springs of the Athletics has the most with five. Springs leads the league in losses, hits and home runs allowed. He pitched seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball against the Yankees back in April.
I won’t be upset if Sunday was Warren’s last start as a Yankee, and I’m fairly certain it was. Warren is the likeliest of current Yankees’ major leaguers to get traded by next Monday, and if they plan on moving him, I don’t know that they would risk running him out there for one more start on Friday. At this point, it’s not just about not wanting him to get hurt before the deadline to move him, it’s also about giving the team the best chance to win and Warren at Wrigley Field against the Cubs’ offense isn’t that.
4. Remember when David Bednar allowed that stunning game-tying home run at Citi Field back on May 17? I do, and my wallet does. The following day, Bednar allowed another earned run to the Blue Jays as the Yankees held on for a 7-6 win. That was the last time Bednar allowed an earned run. Here is Bednar’s line since that May 18 game: 23.2 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 24 K. Bednar was forced into high-leverage situations early in March because of the World Baseball Classic and then was leaned on heavily and overworked in late March and throughout April by the Yankees because of how many close games they were playing and how few trustworthy options they had. Once Bednar was given adequate rest and others emerged as late-inning relief choices, he began to look like his normal self, and now he looks like a version of himself that has never previously existed.
5. One of those choices who emerged was Brent Headrick who has a 1.38 ERA in 52 appearances and 52 innings in his first full season in the majors. He and Bednar are clearly and obviously the most trustworthy relief options on the team followed by Paul Blackburn (whose career has been saved by the Yankees like Luke Weaver’s was), then Fernando Cruz (in specific spots), then Tim Hill (in two-lefty lanes) and that’s the end of the list. With Blackburn’s ability to go multiple innings, the Yankees have the option of shortening a game to five or six innings if needed, or turning to others to close out games on days Bednar is unavailable. That doesn’t mean the bullpen is a finished product or should be, just that it’s in a much better place than it was just a few weeks ago when Jake Bird and Camilo Doval were pitching in high-leverage situations.
6. During Friday’s late-game meltdown, the NBC booth was talking about Girardi winning a championship as Yankees manager.
“I wanted to thank Mr. Steinbrenner for the opportunity and I was able to do that by giving him a ring,” Girardi said.
As Girardi finished that sentence, the camera cut to Boone walking to the mound for a pitching change in the middle of his ninth season of a ring-less tenure. I guess he’s playing the long game in thanking this Steinbrenner for the opportunity.
7. A Yankees comeback was made impossible on Sunday night when the Phillies used a Volpe error to open the floodgates for a five-run sixth. The inning began with a harmless ground ball to Volpe who lollipopped a throw wide of first down the line toward right field. Joe Girardi wondered if Volpe thought he had less time on a play in which he clearly could have set his feet and made a throw over to first rather than wildly throwing on the run, but no, Joe, that wasn’t it. That was Volpe knowing he lacks the arm strength needed to set his feet and get the ball over to first in time, so he lets it go as quickly as possible to try to make up for his lack of arm strength. The day before, Jose Caballero let a ball get to him slowly rather than charging it, knowing he could fire a strike to first in time to get the runner, and he did just that.
I couldn’t care less that Volpe had two doubles in the game. Whoop-dee-doo. It was Volpe’ first multi-hit game since June 23 and the first game he provided an extra-base hit since June 26. Nearly a month between multi-hit games and exactly a month between extra-base hits. One game against Sanchez, who had to grind through six innings without anything close to his best stuff (nine baserunners and two wild pitches) doesn’t make me suddenly think Volpe is now good or has figured it out or is a major leaguer. Volpe shouldn’t be on the roster and George Lombard Jr. is doing everything he can to make sure that happens.
8. Trent Grisham’s questionable defense led to the Phillies’ first run on Sunday as he took a beer league route to a ball that was played into a triple. Grisham’s route choices and arm are both poor and he’s not hitting the home runs he was last year to make up for it. He has two hits since the All-Star break. He’s been two percent worse than league average at the plate, and like Jazz Chisholm, Grisham provides random power here and there and nothing in between. That $22 million qualifying offer looks worse with each passing game and we are now 105 games into the season and Grisham is hitting .216/.318/.390.
9. Speaking of Chisholm, Mr. 50/50 is now a platoon player? Chisholm sat for both games started by a lefty in Philadelphia (Friday and Sunday) and on Saturday he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts against the Phillies’ bullpen game. He’s 1-for-12 with five strikeouts since his last home run. At some point in Chicago, he will likely hit another home run, but do nothing in the plate appearances leading up to that home run or after.
10. The Yankees started this challenging 10-game road trip with a nice series win to begin it. Now the trip moves to Chicago where the Yankees will be for an entire week and seven games. The four-game White Sox series will feature Max Fried followed by Gerrit Cole followed by Schlittler. It’s the dream Yankees fans have been dreaming since Schlittler burst into the big leagues last summer and it’s finally being realized.
The left-handed Noah Schultz and his 6.04 ERA will go for the White Sox in the opener. Don’t let Schultz’s poor numbers fool you. He has some good starts mixed into his 12-start career this season between two call-ups. And with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and lefty masher Cody Bellinger all on the injured list, the lineup you saw on Sunday against a lefty is likely what Aaron Boone will put together on Monday.
Even with the loss on Sunday, two out of three in Philadelphia was a desirable (and unexpected) outcome. Don’t let the trip fall apart against in Chicago.
Last modified: Jul 27, 2026
