NEW YORK -- Yankees manager Aaron Boone emerged from the dugout with one out in the seventh inning Tuesday night to remove Cam Schlittler from his latest masterful performance, and the crowd at Yankee Stadium responded in unison with a standing ovation and MVP chants pitchers rarely receive. They were euphoric, and perhaps stupefied, after watching Schlittler overwhelm the Red Sox in their wild-card series again.
A year ago, Schlittler tossed eight scoreless innings in a win-or-go-home Game 3 against his hometown team. On Tuesday, the Massachusetts native delivered 6⅓ scoreless innings in a 9-0 win over the Red Sox -- and he did it with a co-star from back home.
While Schlittler silenced the Red Sox bats, New York designated hitter Ben Rice, who grew up a Yankees fan a 45-minute drive from Fenway Park, continued his breakout 2026 campaign with a historic night at the plate. He was 4-for-5 with two home runs, including a grand slam, and six RBIs to fuel a Yankees offense still without Aaron Judge.
"Pretty remarkable," Boone said. "For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, [it's] pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly. But I'm certainly glad we have those two."
Schlittler and Rice's connection goes beyond being from the Boston area and playing on the other side of baseball's most historic rivalry. They attended New England colleges not nationally recognized for their baseball programs: Schlittler attended Northeastern; Rice went to Dartmouth. The Yankees drafted them in the seventh and 12th rounds, respectively, one year apart, and they were overlooked as they rose through the ranks until showing up in the Bronx and becoming homegrown franchise cornerstones.
"We love it," Schlittler said.
Schlittler, 25, is the heavy favorite to win the American League Cy Young Award after recording a 1.95 ERA with 239 strikeouts over 193⅔ innings in his first full major league season. Rice, 27, belted 41 home runs -- eight more than the total over his first two big league campaigns -- with an .897 OPS to help sustain a Yankees offense without Judge and Giancarlo Stanton for most of the year.
On Tuesday, the Red Sox, after scoring the fewest runs in the majors in September, were again no match for Schlittler. The lanky right-hander, openly fueled by the animosity he receives from the fanbase he grew up a part of, held Boston to two hits and one walk while striking out 10. In six career starts against the Red Sox, Schlittler has allowed two earned runs over 38⅔ innings, good for a 0.47 ERA, with 49 strikeouts.
"When I saw him come out there, I saw his stuff and I was like, 'All right, he's just got to keep doing his thing and we'll score some runs for him,'" said Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr., who went 3-for-4 in his postseason debut.
Schlittler tied a career-high with 107 pitches through six innings before taking the mound for the seventh. He got Willson Contreras to line out and allowed a single to Wilyer Abreu on his 10th pitch of the inning before Boone took the ball from him.
"No debate to send him out," Boone said. "I was going to have him go face Contreras no matter what. Probably should have taken him out at that point, but I got a little greedy."
Schlittler's 117 pitches were the most for a Yankees pitcher in a postseason game since CC Sabathia threw 120 and 121 pitches in back-to-back starts in 2012. Schlittler induced a career-high 24 swing-and-misses and threw a career-high 29 curveballs -- a pitch central to his game plan. He contrasted his three fastballs -- four-seam, cutter and sinker -- at the top of the zone with landing curveballs below it, constantly working to change batters' eye levels. He used the pitch 9.8% of the time during the regular season and produced a 44.2% whiff rate. On Tuesday, the usage rate jumped to 27% and the whiff rate was 57%.
"That's a pitch I've been able to rely on," Schlittler said. "So just adding that more into the arsenal and being confident with that pitch. The amount of miss and weak contact I'm getting with that, I feel like I'm in a really good spot with it."
Schlittler exited to applause with the Yankees leading 2-0 on an RBI single from Austin Wells in the second inning and Rice's first home run in the fifth inning -- a solo shot off left-hander Erik Miller, whom Red Sox manager Chad Tracy summoned with two outs to replace starter Payton Tolle after 83 pitches. The plan backfired when Miller threw a sinker down the middle that Rice launched into Monument Park.
Rice, who doubled in the first inning, added an RBI single in the seventh before cracking an eighth-inning grand slam off right-hander Brayan Bello to put the finishing touches on the Yankees' largest shutout postseason win since the 1960 World Series.
"He's a superstar," Yankees second baseman Anthony Volpe said.
Rice outhit the Red Sox himself four to three. He became the sixth player in major league history and the first Yankee with at least four hits and six RBIs in a postseason game. The six RBIs tied the Yankees single-game postseason record. Doing it against the Red Sox only made it all sweeter.
"I'll remember getting a W versus the Red Sox," Rice said. "There's nothing better than that."