Judge & Big G HR’s Back Schlittler Gem. NY 6 Baltimore 1

September 28, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0
Aaron Judge with his 53rd HR of the year to give Yanks a 1-0 lead in the 1st.

For the second game in a row, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton powered the offense with homers — this time backing 7 innings of 2-hit, shutout ball by Cam Schlittler — to carry NY to a 6-1 win on a beautiful, 75-degree Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Judge got the Yanks the lead with a solo blast in the bottom of the 1st, Giancarlo Stanton made it 2-0 with a solo blast leading off the 2nd, and Ryan McMahon followed with a solo HR for a 3-0 NY lead. Judge drove in 2 more runs with a bases-loaded single in the 5th to make it 5-0. A Cody Bellinger sac fly made it 6-0.

Meanwhile Schlittler was lights’ out — in command with his easy-motion 100-MPH high heat, nasty 88-to-93-MPH cutter, and 85-MPH curveball. His only hick-up came in the 5th when he hit two batters, the later coming with 2 outs — then threw 3 straight balls to the next batter Jackson Holliday to run the count 3-2. With the score 3-0 at the time there was worry he wouldn’t get the final out of the 5th as he’d done in a start a month ago. But he got Holliday to ground out in a 9-pitch at bat, made an adjustment and was dominant for the rest of his start: 7 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 9 strikeouts, and 1 walk. Paul Blackburn pitched the last 2 innings.

The Division Race

NY temporarily jumped in 1st by a half game over Toronto with the win — which lasted for 2 hours — before Toronto won their game to again reclaim the effective division lead as they own the tiebreaker.

The Batting Title Race & HR Record

Aaron Judge essentially clinched the batting title by going 2-5 to raise his average to .331. Later in the day Jacob Wilson went 0-3 to lower his average to .311. Just a week ago the two were in a virtual tie at .317, with Judge in the lead by a hair. Later in the evening, Cal Raleigh did not hit a HR so remains with 60, with 1 game left in the season.

Boone’s Thoughts

“Stuff was really good again right out of the shoot,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards about Schlittler. “Good job mixing his secondary with the big fastball. Lost the zone a little bit there in the inning where he hit a couple of guys and had some uncharacteristic misses by him. But dialed it right back in and finished great in the 6th and 7th.”

NY — winners of 7 straight — improves to 93-68. Baltimore falls to 75-86.

1. Judge HR Puts Yanks Up 1-0 in 1st

Baltimore started 35-year-old righty Tomoyuki Sugano and Judge got to him right away — a solo blast 383 feet into the bleachers in right center with 2 outs in the bottom of the 1st for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

2. Big G & McMahon HR’s Make it 3-0 NY in 2nd

Giancarlo Stanton followed with a 427-foot blast into the opposite-field, right-field bleachers leading off the 2nd — Yanks 2 Orioles 0.

Sugano got 2 outs but Ryan McMahon hammered an 88-MPH splitter 401 feet to center for a 3-0 Yankee lead.

3. Schlitter Throws Another Gem

Meanwhile Cam Schlittler was awesome from the start — throwing easy-motion, 100-MPH high heat broken up by his nasty 88-93-MPH cutter and tough 85-MPH curveball.

Cam allowed but a 2-out walk to Gunnar Henderson in the 1st, pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd and 3rd, and worked around a 1-out double by Gunnar Henderson in the 4th — getting a lineout and strikeout to end the inning.

Turning Point of the Game

Then came the hickup in the 5th — hitting Jackson Holliday to start the inning, striking out the next 2 batters, but hitting Coby Mayo with 2 outs to put runners on 1st and 2nd in a 3-0 game. Two starts ago, Schlittler was cruising when he couldn’t get the 3rd out of the 5th inning in a 10-1 game — getting too picky and walking batters after allowing a 2-run HR.

He went 0-2 on Jackson Holliday — but then threw 3 straight balls and here we go again. Not this time — Schlittler came back with strikes — a 98-MPH fastball and two 89-MPH cutters; Holliday fouled off the first two then hit a cutter for a broken-bat groundout to 1st to end the threat.

The Yanks put 3 more on the board in the bottom of the 5th while Schlittler was making an adjustment in the dugout. And from there he cruised — pitching an easy 6th and 7th for the win.

Schlittler finishes the season 4-3 2.96 — after starting the year in AA.

On Confidence: King, Schmidt, and Cam in that Order

Afterwards, manager Aaron Boone was asked “Some in the organization compare Cam’s confidence in this early stage of his career to Michael King‘s. Do you see that?”

Boone answered with a chuckle: “No one is as confident as Michael King. It’s Michael King, Clarke Schmidt, and maybe Cam. You walk out there with that equipment, I’d be confident too. He definitely has that. But there’s a humility to him. He doesn’t think he has it figured out or anything like that. He does have confidence with a real good competitiveness. A good combination.”

4. Judge 2-RBI Single, Belli Sac Fly Make It 6-0 in 5th

Sugano left with 1 out and 1 on in the bottom of the 5th (a Ryan McMahon leadoff single).

Grant Wolfram came in and was no relief — walking Trent Grisham and Ben Rice to load the bases for Aaron Judge — who ripped a 2-2 curveball to center for a 2-RBI single.

Cody Bellinger followed with a sac fly and NY was up 6-0.

5. Jazz Hit by Pitch

Wolfram then walked Giancarlo Stanton to put runners on 1st and 2nd — and hit Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the forearm to load the bases. It didn’t look intentional — as retribution for Schlittler hitting 2 batters in the 5th — since it loaded the bases.

Jazz left the game and underwent xrays and a C scan which were all negative.

Wolfram got Paul Goldschmidt to ground out to end the inning.

6. Blackburn Finishes

Paul Blackburn finished up — and what a tremendous pickup he’s been after an inauspicious start. The 31-year-old righty spent his career with the A’s before getting traded to the Mets last year for a minor leaguer (Kade Morris). He got banged up on the Mets last year and this year before getting released on August 18th.

The Yanks picked him up and he got banged up in his first appearance — but Matt Blake and the Yankee coaching staff seem to have helped him make an adjustment, as he had pitched 5 straight outings without allowing an earned run coming into this one.

That string ended when Blackburn allowed a solo HR to Colby Mayo leading off the 8th .

But he rebounded — retiring the next 6 batters he faced — strikeout, groundout, popout to end the 8th and groundout, strikeout, strikeout in the 9th for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401697308

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