Cam Schlittler, Yankees push to keep cruising vs. Rangers

Cam Schlittler's second season in the majors is going well.

Jacob deGrom's second full season following his recovery from elbow surgery also is off to a strong start.

Schlittler and deGrom hope to turn in strong outings when the former leads the New York Yankees into the middle contest of a three-game series against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas.

The Yankees are 9-1 in their past 10 games and own an American League-best 3.18 ERA.

New York opened the series vs. Texas by getting six scoreless innings from Max Fried and three home runs in a 4-2 victory on Monday.

Schlittler (3-1, 1.77 ERA) did not face Texas last season, when he went 4-3 with a 2.96 ERA while striking out 84 batters in 73 innings over 14 starts. The right-hander has allowed two runs or less in four of his six starts this season and got a career-high 12 outs on the ground Thursday in Boston.

"He's just getting really, really good out there. That's an ace-like performance," manager Aaron Boone said of Schlitter, who allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits in eight innings of a 4-2 victory over the Red Sox.

The Rangers, who are coming off their sixth loss in nine games, are 5-0 in deGrom's starts this season. The right-hander (2-0, 2.13 ERA) has allowed three runs in his past four starts after a shaky season debut in Baltimore on March 31.

On Thursday, deGrom notched a season-high 10 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings of a 6-1 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. He allowed a run on five hits.

"I thought that was the best he's thrown all year," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "He was 98 miles an hour pretty consistently, dotting almost every fastball, 70-plus percent strikes. He threw a lot of first-pitch strikes; the slider was working off the fastball. It was exactly what we were hoping for. It was a really, really strong outing."

The Yankees have seen plenty of deGrom from his time with the Mets, who did not retain him after the 2022 season. He is 2-4 with a 3.14 ERA in eight career starts against the Yankees and held them to two runs on three hits in seven innings of a no-decision last May 21.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner has held Aaron Judge to one hit in seven at-bats, and Cody Bellinger is 5-for-19 against him.

Judge has eight of his 11 homers in the past 15 games and reached base four times while collecting three hits on Monday. Ben Rice has six of his 10 homers in his past 11 games, and the duo hit consecutive homers as the Yankees went deep three times for the seventh time this season.

"Benny's off to an amazing start and Judge ho-hum, 11 homers already," Boone said Monday. "Really maybe his best game of at-bats tonight. It's a pretty good combo there."

Texas is coming off being held to two runs or less for the eighth time. Six of those instances have been at home, where the Rangers are batting .216.

Corey Seager is hitting only .183 over his past 22 games after striking out three times Monday.

"You can tell he's grinding through some stuff for sure, but it feels like he's just about to get hot," Schumaker said about Seager, who is hitting .212.