On Friday night, it was the Reds.
Next month, it may be the National League All-Stars that Cam Schlittler is starting against.
The Yankees’ budding ace turned in a downright dominant outing on Friday, striking out a career-high 13 across six scoreless innings on the way to a 5-0 win over the Reds in The Bronx.
Lowering his ERA to 1.71 through 16 starts, Schlittler added another highlight on his crowded résumé to start the All-Star Game for the American League.
His biggest opponent Friday was his pitch count, as he needed 96 pitches to get through the sixth, or else he might have kept going.
The Reds (35-39), who entered the night with the second-highest strikeout rate (24.5 percent) of any team, fell right into Schlittler’s hands as he became the first Yankee to record 13 strikeouts since Max Fried last September.
The right-hander scattered just four hits (one of them a dropped fly ball by Jasson Domínguez in right field) while walking none.
In the process, the 25-year-old Schlittler became the youngest pitcher in Yankees history to record 13 strikeouts and no walks in a game, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
“Schlitty is the Cy Young winner hands down,” freshly crowned NBA champion, Knicks star and known Yankees fan Josh Hart posted on X.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the second inning with a home run and Ben Rice capped it off with a three-run shot, providing all the run support Schlittler needed as the Yankees (46-28) won for the 10th time in their last 13 games.
Entering Friday, Schlittler’s regular-season career high was nine strikeouts.
He surpassed that on a punchout of Eugenio Suárez on a 99 mph sinker to end the fourth inning, when he struck out the side.
His overall career-high was the 12 strikeouts he had in the AL wild-card series against his hometown Red Sox last October.
But he beat that mark by the fifth inning, blowing a 98 mph heater past JJ Bleday for a three-pitch strikeout.
Schlittler’s night actually got off to an inauspicious start when his first pitch was a sinker that ran in and hit Blake Dunn.
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But by the time he walked off the mound for the final time, he received a standing ovation from the crowd of 42,420 for his efforts.
Jake Bird, Brent Headrick and David Bednar each threw a scoreless inning of relief to finish off the shutout.
Chisholm, who left Thursday’s game in the middle of an at-bat after fouling a ball (on a bounce) into his groin area, showed no ill effects on Friday.
Leading off the second inning, he got a changeup at the top of the zone from Reds righty Rhett Lowder and clobbered it into the second deck in right field for the 1-0 lead.
After Spencer Jones and Anthony Volpe followed with walks, Rice came up with one out and jumped on a 94 mph fastball at the top of the zone, crushing it into the netting over Monument Park for a three-run shot — his 21st of the season — that made it 4-0.
Volpe later added an RBI single in the eighth inning for his second hit of the night.
