Cam Schlittler expressed frustration with his performance after a 4 1/3 inning outing, where he surrendered three runs in the Yankees' 8-2 loss to the Dodgers on Sunday. Schlittler, who opted out of the All-Star Game, faced a potent Dodgers lineup in the first game of a doubleheader.
Despite recording a career-high 20 swings and misses and eight strikeouts, Schlittler was forced out of the game by the fifth inning. The Dodgers fouled off 27 pitches, many with two strikes, driving up Schlittler's pitch count to 98. "As a starter, [if] you can’t get through five, that’s not a good sign," Schlittler said. "I feel like the miss was there, the strikeouts are good, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t put a competitive outing together."
Schlittler began strong, striking out the side in the first inning. However, the Dodgers began to extend at-bats in the second inning, which included a Max Muncy double aided by the sun. Shohei Ohtani gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the third with an RBI double, and Freddie Freeman added another RBI single before the inning concluded. Tommy Edman was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fifth, and Andy Pages followed with a bloop double that ended Schlittler's day, leaving the Yankees trailing 3-1.
"They put a good swing on pretty much everything," catcher Ali Sánchez commented on the Dodgers' approach. Manager Aaron Boone acknowledged the Dodgers' ability to extend at-bats, contributing to Schlittler's high pitch count. "He had a ton of swing-and-miss going, which was getting him into 2-2 and 3-2 counts, and then they did a pretty good job of extending some at-bats with a lot of foul balls," Boone said. "So it was kind of death by a thousand cuts."