Why bounce-back performance vs. Rays was personal for Yankees' Cam Schlittler

New York Yankees starter Cam Schlittler performed like a true ace when he tallied eight strikeouts over eight innings of work in a 5-1 win at the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night. 

Following the victory, Schlittler suggested that he had heard and read what some had to say about him following his poor outing against the Detroit Tigers on June 30.

Monday night was "personal" for Cam Schlittler

"Yeah, I mean, again -- last week was tough, right? They want to say that there's f----ing regression because I had one bad outing," Schlittler explained, per Garrett Stepien of SNY. "So, again, it was personal to go out there and just have a dominant start and put this team in the right position." 

Schlittler allowed six runs in four innings during a 9-3 loss to Detroit last week. Manager Aaron Boone and others associated with the Yankees were likely glad Schlittler had some extra motivation on Monday evening, as the Bronx Bombers had lost nine of their last 10 games and 12 of their past 15 contests.

"It's frustrating, right? You want to stop the bleeding," Schlittler said about the Yankees' latest struggles. "I just wasn't able to do that. So, I feel like I dedicated myself this week to just kind of being more locked in and, again, trying to go out there and put the team in a position to win against the first-place team in our division is good. So, I think we played great ball tonight, and we've got three more to go."

Aaron Boone not surprised Cam Schlittler bounced back in a big way

The 50-40 Yankees still trail the 52-36 Rays in the American League East standings. Tampa Bay will host New York three more times this week, and Boone likely is hoping that Monday's result will light a fire under his players ahead of the All-Star break. 

"It was huge," Boone said about Schlittler's performance on Monday. "You know, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised he bounced back from arguably his toughest outing of his young career so far against the Tigers. So, he was great. He was dominant. He was efficient and, yeah, great way to get the road trip started."