Yankees' Schlittler and Rice dominate Red Sox in Wild Card Game 1

NEW YORK -- The Yankees found a pair of Red Sox killers in Red Sox country. Cam Schlittler pitched and Ben Rice slugged New York to a Tuesday night win over Boston in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium (NY 9, BOS 0), a dominant start to the three-game first-round playoff set. The Yankees received contributions from other homegrown players, but Schlittler and Rice were the stars. One more win sends New York to the ALDS.

"I'll remember getting a W versus the Red Sox," Rice said after going 4 for 5 with two home runs. "There's nothing better than that. I'll remember Cam going out there and just being lights out, like he always is. I'll remember the atmosphere. It was just an awesome night. Great way to kick off the series."

Schlittler (Walpole) and Rice (Cohasset) were born and raised in Massachusetts and drafted by the Yankees out of New England colleges. Rice was a 12th-round pick out of Dartmouth in 2021. Schlittler was a seventh-round selection out of Northeastern in 2022. Matt Hyde, New York's Northeast scout, scouted and originally signed both players.

"We have a lot of conversations with Matty Hyde, and I know he's proud of us," Schlittler said after Game 1. "And again, we wouldn't be here without him. Just to have the confidence of being mid-round guys, having to work a little bit harder to get up here and embrace that together, it's special."

The Ivy League ended the 2020 baseball season in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and canceled the 2021 season entirely. Rice played only 30 games in three years at Dartmouth, and instead had to showcase himself in summer leagues and organized workouts. His breakout season came in the minors in 2023, then he leveled up in 2024, and again going into 2025.

With Aaron Judge sidelined most of the season, Rice emerged as New York's offensive leader, slugging 41 home runs during the regular season and ranking third among qualified hitters in slugging percentage (.534) and fourth in OPS (.897). Rice's 67 home runs over the last two seasons are the 13th most in baseball. In Game 1, he tied a franchise postseason record with six RBI.

"We love it. Mid-round guys, Ben has excelled very well in the organization. He was someone I knew while I was in the minors of how well he was excelling," Schlittler said about his relationship with Rice. "And again, it's great to be teammates with him and have that comfortability being from home. He's been dominant all season. It's very exciting to watch."

Schlittler's rise up the minors was simply meteoric. After sitting 90-91 mph during his draft year in college, and ticking up to 93-94 mph in the minors from 2023-24, Schlittler's fastball jumped to 95-96 mph in Double-A to start 2025, 96-97 mph in Triple-A in the middle of 2025, and then 98-99 mph in the big leagues after debuting last July. It is a player development home run for the Yankees.

In Game 1, Schlittler struck out 10 in 6 ⅓ shutout innings, lowering his career ERA against the Red Sox to 0.47 in six starts. That follows his masterpiece in Game 3 of last year's Wild Card Series, when he struck out 12 in eight shutout innings to send his hometown team home and the Yankees to the ALDS. There's no other way to put it: Schlittler is a stone cold Red Sox killer.

"I think they learned their lesson last year," Schlittler said after Game 1. "A lot of my buddies are here from home. I haven't seen them in seven months. It's special that they're here supporting me. I know they had a great time tonight regardless. They're still Red Sox fans, but at the end of the day, they support me, and I think they know better than to try and mess around with it."

Schlittler grew up a Red Sox fan. Rice was a Yankees fan in Red Sox territory. "Maybe it was probably all in good fun, but definitely wearing the Yankees jersey to the first grade picture day probably got some weird looks," Rice said about the razzing he received growing up. "I was always playing with the Yankees on MLB 2K6 when I was a little guy."

New England is not a traditional baseball hotbed and the old adage is you can't miss on players in your own backyard, but the Red Sox missed on Schlittler and Rice. To be fair, maybe neither player becomes this under the guidance of the Red Sox's minor-league development system, but two Massachusetts kids torturing the Red Sox as Yankees is a big heap of salt in a deep wound.

"Pretty remarkable. I mean, not too top draft pick guys. Obviously with strong Massachusetts ties. Obviously that's been a storyline for a couple of years now," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly, but I'm certainly glad we have those two."