The New York Yankees will send ace right-hander Cam Schlittler to the mound on Saturday as they aim to split their three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Schlittler (5-1, 1.52 ERA), who tops the American League in earned run average and is tied for the league lead in wins, faces Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison (3-1, 2.12).
Milwaukee opened the series with a 6-0 victory on Friday, powered by a dominant outing from hard-throwing Jacob Misiorowski. He allowed just two hits over six scoreless innings, striking out 11. The Brewers capitalized in the second inning against starter Max Fried, stringing together four singles and two walks to score four runs.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Brewers against New York and marked their first shutout of the Yankees since a 7-0 victory on September 2, 1992.
Highly touted prospect Spencer Jones made his MLB debut for the Yankees. Jones, who posted 11 homers and 41 RBIs in 33 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, drew a walk and struck out twice. The first pitch he saw from Misiorowski was a 103.6 mph fastball.
“I didn’t know where the radar gun was, so I was looking for it, couldn’t find it,” Jones said. “I saw it after the fact. He’s got an electric fastball. I’ve never seen pitches that hard in my life. To be able to foul off a couple was pretty great. I’ll take that for now.”
Schlittler has allowed one run or fewer in six of his eight starts this season. In his last outing, he earned the win after allowing one run on seven hits with three walks over 5 2/3 innings in a 12-1 victory against Baltimore.
“The execution wasn’t there today,” Schlittler said. “Obviously, you could see the strikes were down. So, just got to make that adjustment going into next start.”
He has surrendered just one home run to 181 batters faced this season.
Jose Caballero, who recorded both hits off Misiorowski, has reached base safely in 21 of his last 24 games. Over that stretch, he is batting .321 with four home runs, four doubles, and nine RBIs.
Brewers left fielder Brandon Lockridge left Friday’s game on a cart in the fourth inning after sliding into the wall in foul territory, suffering a right knee laceration.
“Initial X-rays say it’s not fractured, but he’s got a huge laceration,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s going to be a while.”
If Lockridge lands on the injured list, Blake Perkins is likely to replace him. Perkins was optioned to Triple-A Nashville after 19 games with Milwaukee this season.
Harrison, acquired in an offseason trade with Boston, has not allowed more than two runs in any of his six starts. In his most recent outing, he gave up one run on seven hits over six innings in a 4-1 win at Washington.
“He was fantastic today,” Murphy said. “He did a great job. You can see the confidence coming out of him, so that’s a great thing for a guy with limited experience. And the way he’s throwing the ball for us, it was great. He was great, gave us six innings.”
In his previous start, Harrison tossed six scoreless innings of one-hit ball in a 5-0 win over Pittsburgh. He has yet to face the Yankees.
Outfielder Jackson Chourio has hit safely in three straight games since returning from the injured list, batting .538 (7-for-13) with three doubles and two RBIs.
