The New York Yankees had their ace on the mound for Game 2 of the American League Division Series, but they did not do enough to help him out.
The Yankees made three errors in the first inning, and Schlittler exited after 4 1/3 innings of work. The extra pitches caught up to him, and he ended up allowing four runs. Only two of the runs were earned, but overall, his defense let him down.
After the game, Schlittler noted that the Yankees have a great defense, and that Monday night did not go their way. He instead said that he did not do his job and the loss starts with him.
"Obviously it starts with me," Schlittler said after the game, per YES Network. "I'll be the first one to say that I didn't do my job."
"Just didn't have my stuff today," he added. "I didn't get great results. Some timely hits there and didn't get through the fifth."
Schlittler was critical of himself, but remained confident that the Yankees could come back and win the series. Aaron Boone, however, was not as critical of Schlittler, noting that the rest of the team did not do enough to help him.
"He battled,” Boone said after the game, per MLB.com's Matthew Leach. “Obviously, (he) picked us up kind of all night. It's just hard to do that time after time. Too many free outs out there or free baserunners. So I thought Cam threw the ball well. They did a good job against him of putting pressure on him and putting the ball in play and started to get some really good swings off him there that last time through.
“But Cam did his job. We didn't give him a good enough chance to really do his job.”
The manager and the player have differing opinions on whether Schlittler did his part on Monday night, but ultimately the end result is a loss regardless. The Yankees have to get more out of their offense if they want any chance to win. Against a team like the Tampa Bay Rays, defense is even more important as they thrive on putting the ball in play.