Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler looks for his 10th win of the season when New York visits the Washington Nationals in the middle game of their series on Saturday.
The Yankees have won two straight for the first time since June 23-24 thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s heroics on Friday night when he hit a two-run go-ahead homer and New York rallied past Washington 5-3.
Schlittler (9-5, 2.01 ERA) opposes right-hander Miles Mikolas (3-7, 5.78) in the middle game.
The Yankees All-Star recently followed up his worst start of the season with arguably his best. On June 30, he gave up six runs on seven hits — four of them home runs — in four innings of a loss to the Detroit Tigers. Last time out, he stifled the Tampa Bay Rays, giving up one run on four hits in eight innings. He struck out eight batters without a walk.
“It was huge. I’m not surprised he bounced back from arguably his toughest outing of his career so far against the Tigers,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He was great. He was dominant. He was efficient.”
It matched his longest start of the season, an eight-inning effort in a win against the Red Sox on April 23.
Schlittler tossed six scoreless innings to beat the Nationals last season.
Mikolas is looking to bounce back from a pair of losses in which he gave up 13 runs on 18 hits (four homers) over 13 innings. Against the Houston Astros on July 6, he allowed seven runs on nine hits in six innings. He settled in after giving up six early runs.
Washington won 12-11 making Mikolas the first Nationals pitcher (2005-present) to give up seven runs and get a win.
“It reminds you that you’re never really out of a game, even if you feel pretty bad about the first couple of innings,” he said.
On Friday night, the Nationals got back-to-back homers from Keibert Ruiz and James Wood to take a 3-2 lead in the seventh. Nationals manager Blake Butera called on left-hander Matt Krook to work the ninth against two lefties and a switch hitter for what would have been his first big-league save.
Krook got the first out, but gave up a single to Jasson Dominguez and then Chisholm’s home run into the second deck on a 1-1 sweeper.
“That was a big blow,” Boone said. “That’s not a comfortable at-bat necessarily and to hang in there and stay on that pitch and I mean absolutely destroy it was a big time at-bat.”
Dominguez and Austin Wells also homered for the Yankees.
Wood finished a triple short of the cycle and scored twice. He has 11 hits and 13 walks in his last 27 plate appearances, striking out just three times in that span. Wood has homered in three of his past four games.
Washington’s bullpen has blown a league-high 26 saves this season. In their past 16 games, they have allowed four go-ahead homers in the ninth inning.
“When you’re facing three hitters in the ninth like these guys (tonight), it doesn’t help your case at all,” Butera said. “But at the end of the day, these guys in the bullpen are going to have to get big outs for us.”
–Field Level Media
