Red Sox fans' attempts to intimidate Cam Schlittler fail for 6th straight time in Yankees romp

The Legend of Cam Schlittler began formally when he was given the ball against his childhood team in the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series last October. While his evolution and velocity journey was already well known among Yankees fans, Red Sox rooters learned real quickly that Schlittler can be both overpowering and fueled by personal slights. Schlittler's postgame tweet, "Drinking dat dirty water" lit a fire in Faneuil Hall before the ace explained that he put a little something extra on his 12 Ks that night because of Boston fans who'd swarmed his family and crossed a line.

Boston fans insist all they did was stir up a hornet's nest and tweet at his mom. The odds that the extent of their behavior was publicly visible is slim-to-none.

SInce that deciding game, the Sox fans-Schlittler war of words has continued ad nauseam. Boston fans will attempt to mock Schlittler's mentality - his comments on rowdiness at Fenway, his gentle suggestions to check the standings - and he'll respond by utterly destroying them. Three times is more than a coincidence. Four times is art. Five times is cemented.

Six? Well, the sixth opportunity to lower his 0.56 ERA against Boston came in Game 1 of the 2026 Wild Card Series, after a little bit of odd consternation over whether he should throw first or second. The pre-start Twitterverse was packed with gibberish about who cared more about who and whose head was where. Once the game began? It was another wonderful edition of "Who Cares?"

Schlittler might've somehow saved his best for last, buzzsawing through Boston after allowing a one-out single to Adley Rutschman on a 10-pitch at-bat in the first frame (the announcers couldn't stop gushing over it, which ... you know ... ok). He didn't allow a second base hit until his 117th pitch in the seventh inning to Wilyer Abreu. He didn't allow a runner in scoring position all night long. The presumptive AL Cy Young winner is an absolute maniac, and it's phenomental that they can't stop trying to get under his skin, pulling off their own flesh in the meantime.

As 98.5 The Sports Hub's Matt McCarthy wisely tweeted, "Maybe we should stop tweeting at this guy until he stops shoving the bats up our a--" well, you get it.

Yankees' Cam Schlittler may have saved his best for Wild Card Game 1 vs. Boston Red Sox. Yes. Seriously.

And if I didn't know any better - and I really, truly don't know any better - I'd say Schlittler switching things up and going 30% curveballs for the first five innings out of seemingly nowhere (and landing most of them) might've been partially fueled by a certain podcaster calling out the pitch's underperformance on Twitter in the middle of the summer.

The nine runs the Red Sox allowed is the most they've ever surrendered in a postseason shutout loss, per Katie Sharp. The ace set the tone. The bats - and fellow Massachusetts man Ben Rice - followed. The job's not finished. The entire clubhouse knows it. But the more Boston tries to poke at Schlittler, the more he bites back. And it's absolutely crazy they haven't figured it out yet and/or cannot resist sealing their own death warrant whenever he pitches.

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