NEW YORK -- The first time Cam Schlittler pitched angry in a heated rivalry game he was an 18-year-old high school senior. He was the ace Walpole High deployed for its biggest games in 2019. Matchups against Braintree High, another Massachusetts public school power in the area, fell into that category.
Schlittler beat Braintree three times that spring. Before one meeting, while the two teams stretched, he heard Braintree players chirping.
"They were talking about my girlfriend at the time," Schlittler said. "So I almost smoked one of the batters. The coach in Braintree is from Walpole so I knew him. I told him while I was walking by in the first inning, 'If they talk about my girlfriend again, I'm going to hit the next three guys.'
"So he went over [and] told their guys to shut up and they stopped talking. I was pretty locked in after that. I destroyed them."
The second time Schlittler pitched angry in a rivalry game was last week.
The setting was different -- pitching for the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox, his favorite team growing up, at Yankee Stadium. The stakes were elevated -- a do-or-die Game 3 of the wild-card series with a trip to Toronto for the American League Division Series on the line in just his 15th major league start. But a similar rage simmered after Red Sox fans, in his view, crossed the line attacking his family members on social media.
"I texted my family 20 minutes before the game," Schlittler said. "I said, like, 'Hey, this is postseason baseball. It doesn't matter that we're from Boston. They're going to get under your skin. Just don't answer. Stay away from it. Don't give them an edge. We'll handle it after the game, whatever. And I'll go kick their ass.'"
The 24-year-old rookie backed his pledge, becoming the first pitcher to throw at least eight scoreless innings with at least 12 strikeouts and no walks in a postseason game. The 12 strikeouts were the most ever in a winner-take-all game. He overpowered the Red Sox with a steady dose of 100 mph fastballs. He dismantled his hometown club.
On Wednesday, six days after helping save the Yankees' season, they will ask him to do it again with the team trailing 2-1 in the ALDS.
"I think he's obviously confident in his ability, and he walks out there with some pretty good equipment," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "But he's super matter-of-fact and expects to do well, [and] also is kind of accountable and over himself too. [It's like], 'Man, how can I pull something from that outing that needs to be a little bit better or build on something that was really good in that outing?'"
SCHLITTLER FIRST TOUCHED 80 mph as a 5-foot-6 middle schooler. He first touched 90 mph, after a 6-inch growth spurt, as a sophomore in his first year on the Walpole varsity team. And he first touched 100 mph, long after growing to 6-6, in his MLB debut at Yankee Stadium in July.
"I love when I look up and I see the 100 with the flame," Schlittler said. "It's a good feeling. But I'm not too worried about the 100. I care more about my average than the peak velo. For me, it's like, 'Man, if I can average 97, 98, that's elite.' Yeah, it's nice to sit 100 but, at the end of the day, if my fastball's still 98, 99 in the seventh inning, that's the main goal."
The uptick was the culmination of a steady development trajectory. Schlittler never was considered a top prospect nationally at any level. He went to Northeastern, a mid-major program, before he was drafted in the seventh round. But the people around him swore on his untapped potential.
"He was a late bloomer, but he was dominant," Walpole baseball head coach Chris Costello said. "The common theme was always upside, upside, upside. To his credit, there's a lot of guys who have upside. Most guys don't reach it. He's reached it at every level."
To reach it at the highest level, Schlittler focused on putting on weight over the past two winters. A stomach bug during spring training nullified his gains for the 2024 season, but he kept the weight this year. Still, his fastball was sitting 93 to 96 mph when he reported to spring training, according to Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake. There was more work to do.
By the summer, after streamlining his mechanics in Double-A and Triple-A, Schlittler was holding steady in the upper 90s. Then, with the Yankees needing someone to replace injured starter Clarke Schmidt, he debuted in the Bronx against the Seattle Mariners on July 9 and unveiled 100.
Schlittler's fifth pitch that day at Yankee Stadium was a 99.9 mph fastball. His ninth was a 99.6 mph fastball down the middle that froze AL MVP contender Cal Raleigh for strike three. His 14th pitch officially cracked the triple-digit threshold.
"I wouldn't say it's all that common within a calendar year to make that kind of jump, 6, 7 miles an hour," Blake said. "But it's also not totally unheard of, especially with a guy like this, who you look at as a classic projectable frame. But just because it's projectable doesn't mean he's going to actualize it. That's always the next step."
The unanticipated increase was not a fleeting shot-of-adrenaline occurence. Schlittler sustained the increased velocity within games and between starts. His four-seam fastball averaged 98 mph in his 14 regular-season starts. His sinker averaged 97.5 mph. Last week, he threw 107 pitches against the Red Sox. Of those, 64 were at least 98 mph and 11 hit triple digits.
"It comes down to the hard work I put in the offseason," said Schlittler, who has already pitched 37 more innings this year than he ever has before. "To still feel this good at the end of the season is a blessing."
JOHN SCHLITTLER WANTED his son to attend Xaverian Brothers High School, a private Catholic school in nearby Westwood, for its academics. It's where he went before playing baseball and football at Stonehill College.
"That's what I was focused on," John Schlittler said. "Because, at the time, it had nothing to do with baseball ... I just thought he could use the discipline and academics. But he said, 'I want to stay home and play with my boys right here at Walpole.'"
Six years after graduation, Cam Schlittler is in a group text chat with 17 friends from Walpole High. Last month, when the Yankees played at Fenway Park, 16 of them showed up for a game. The 17th, a Boston firefighter, was working. After the game, the friends took a photo on the field.
"It was like a reunion at Fenway," Schlittler said. "I got them all tickets ... I don't really get to see them much, so that was really good."
Those same friends gave Schlittler grief for bouncing their Red Sox from the postseason. Schlittler lives in Boston during the offseason and considers the city home. Some trash talk from friends was fine -- and expected. But he said he was shocked by the vitriol he and his family received going into that night -- and he took it a bit more personally than he would have from another fanbase.
"He's a very loyal person," Costello said. "His family, they're very tight. And they just pissed off the wrong guy that night."
Chances are Schlittler won't pitch angry on Wednesday when he encounters a significantly more dangerous lineup than the one he faced last week. Revenge perhaps could serve as fuel.
It was against the Blue Jays, at Yankee Stadium, that Schlittler endured the worst start of his young career. It happened on Sept. 5 in his 10th career outing. His stuff was crisp. He made good pitches. But the Blue Jays, the toughest team to strike out in the majors this season, were seemingly on everything. He threw 66 pitches over just 1⅔ innings. Of the 66, 24 were fouled off.
"It was getting to a point where I was kinda wanting them to put it in play," Schlittler said.
It was obvious to the Yankees that Schlittler was tipping his pitches. Both he and Blake said that the matter was addressed and it's no longer an issue. But a stiff challenge remains. It's on Schlittler, again, to extend the Yankees' season.
"I have confidence in myself," Schlittler said. "I have confidence in this team."