Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Cam Schlittler looked like he had a stranglehold on the American League Cy Young race. But yesterday was a good reminder that this is baseball, and anything can happen.
Schlittler's showdown with Tarik Skubal at Yankee Stadium wasn't the pitchers' duel we were expecting. Skubal was Skubal. But Schlittler wasn't Schlittler.
The Yankees phenom, who was the near-unanimous favorite in our last AL Cy Young poll, got hammered for six runs on four home runs, the worst start of his career. His ERA jumped from 1.62 to 2.08, the first time it's been over 2.00 since mid-April.
But does that open the door in the Cy Young race?
As Skubal himself correctly surmised after outpitching Schlittler, "Even after today’s game, I bet he still has the lowest ERA in the American League." Schlittler's 2.08 ERA is indeed well clear of the Rays' Drew Rasmussen (2.45) for the league lead, and a 2.08 ERA is firmly in Cy Young territory.
But for one of the only times this season, Schlittler looked mortal -- on the same day that some of the other top dogs in the AL looked like they're leveling up.
Like Jacob deGrom, who overpowered the Guardians and looked like Vintage deGrom doing it. deGrom's fastball was sizzling like it hadn't in a long time -- he reached triple digits five times, including a max velo of 100.5 mph and a strikeout at 100 on the dot.
If we're going to get triple digits from deGrom down the back half of the season, and if he can lead the now-first-place Rangers to an AL West title, he'll be in the conversation for a third career Cy Young.
And there's always Skubal himself to contend with. Going toe-to-toe with Schlittler, the reigning back-to-back Cy Young winner had his best start since returning from elbow surgery and looked like, well, a guy who could win three straight. Even with the time Skubal's missed, if he has a completely dominant second half of the season, could you really rule him out?
Imagine Skubal pitches the Tigers back into playoff contention -- or, say he gets traded to an AL contender and leads them straight to the postseason -- how would he not get Cy Young consideration?
It's still Schlittler's award to lose. He's been the best pitcher in the American League this year -- even Skubal says so. But we're not even at the All-Star break yet. There's plenty of time for the other contenders to get back into the mix, and we'd love a good, competitive award race.
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