Cam Schlittler-Dylan Cease Cy Young race just changed after one ace failed to handle business

How much difference could Yankees ace Cam Schlittler really make in the Cy Young race with a home start against the Rockies? Not much ... until Blue Jays challenger Dylan Cease went out to the west coast on Monday night and struggled to hold serve in Sacramento. Suddenly, more eyes than normal were on Schlittler's line against a scrappy, but still undermanned Rockies lineup — and Aaron Judge's return from injury after 99 days turning it into a showcase event only emboldened that narrative.

Outside of an Adael Amador hiccup home run to the short porch, Schlittler was nearly flawless, baiting a happy-to-swing Rockies club into whiffing out of their shoes on his above-the-zone cheese. He struck out 10 and finished an efficient seven innings on just 96 pitches, allowing only two base runners' worth of traffic. The outing matched fans' standards for dominance, lowering his ERA to a paltry 2.01 and his bWAR to 6.7 (of course, he and Cease are still neck-and-neck in fWAR, 5.4 to 5.5). It was Schlittler's 20th start of the season allowing one run or fewer, putting extra breathing room between his remarkable season and Ron Guidry's 18 such starts in 1978, the agreed-upon greatest season by a Yankees starter in history.

Is it unfair to judge this Cy Young competition as a horse race? Sure. All that matters is a final line at the end of the year. But that line looks a lot better without outings like Cease's against the A's this week, when his ERA rose to 2.40 with five runs (four earned) allowed in five innings against a team that gave up on their pennant chase in mid-July.

Cam Schlittler vs. Dylan Cease: Did Rockies start clinch Yankees' Cy Young win?

Likely, Schlittler will have one more statement to make in order to secure victory. He's due to pitch in the Yankees' Subway Series finale on Sunday, and a star turn against the Mets on the weekend honoring the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 may be enough to put Cease in the rearview for good.

The Blue Jays' ace — who's only thrown 161 1/3 innings to Schlittler's 178 2/3 — will face a relatively clean slate, with two starts against the Orioles and one against the Rangers likely to go before his season wraps. Schlittler has the Mets, Diamondbacks, and Rays, in all likelihood, all making for tougher challenges. That meant Tuesday night might've been his best shot to make an emphatic statement against a team ripe for the picking, and he took full advantage. Cease, with a similar opportunity in a minor-league ballpark, did not.

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