Elle's Baseball Musings: Two Young Arms, One Very Old Rivalry
By Elle Elena ·
The Red Sox and Yankees have been playing games that meant something against each other since the Yankees were still called the Highlanders. On Tuesday night in the Bronx, the first game of this October's chapter belongs to two starters early in their careers. Chad Tracy named rookie Payton Tolle for Wild Card Game 1 on Monday. The Yankees are going with Cam Schlittler.
Schlittler finished 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts, and he has spent months at the front of the Cy Young conversation. He grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts. So a pitcher raised in Red Sox country will take the mound in Yankee Stadium trying to end Boston's season.
Tolle finished his rookie year 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA and 171 strikeouts. Tracy picked him ahead of Sonny Gray, who gets Game 2. Garrett Crochet's status is still up in the air after a shoulder and lat issue that last let him pitch on April 25, and Tracy said the club is evaluating him daily. Tolle earned this start, and he is also the best option Boston has right now.
Both of them miss bats. Between them they struck out 410 hitters this year. I'll be watching the second time through the order. Schlittler has already shut the Red Sox down once in October. Tolle is making his first road playoff start, and how he handles the fourth and fifth innings will tell me more than his first few pitches.
Boston has seen this pitcher in October before. In Game 3 of last year's Wild Card Series, with the season on the line, Schlittler, then 24, threw eight scoreless innings against the Red Sox, and the Yankees won 4-0 to take the series. He allowed five hits, walked nobody, and struck out 12. Tracy has the rest of this series lined up, with Gray facing Max Fried in Game 2 and Ranger Suarez facing Gerrit Cole if it goes three. There is plenty of October experience in those four names, which makes it stand out that Game 1 went to the two young ones.
The Red Sox should not be here at all by June standards. On June 24 they were 32-46 and 15 and a half games out of first in the American League East. Getting from there to a Game 1 in the Bronx took the whole summer, and the first night of what comes next is in a rookie's hands.
Game 1 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. People have argued about this rivalry for more than a hundred years. This round starts with two pitchers who are just getting going, and I'll be watching every pitch.
-Elle