NEW YORK — Walking off the mound in Tampa last Wednesday, Schlittler was unable to complete a no-hitter and needed Luke Weaver to get out of a jam to salvage his scoreless line, which he did. Schlittler never looked back as he took the mound against the young Nationals lineup on a Monday night in the Bronx.

Schlittler followed up his dominant performance against the Rays with another impressive performance, twirling six shutout innings against the Nationals and lowing his season ERA to 2.76. Schlittler has shown tremendous progress with his command in his recent starts, sharpening his curveball for a devastating breaking pitch to add to his 99 MPH average fastball.

“He’s a key part of our rotation now going down the stretch” Manager Aaron Boone said, addressing Schlittler’s start on Monday.

Schlittler was called up in early July out of necessity due to Clarke Schmidt undergoing Tommy John surgery, and though he was a highly regarded prospect, I don’t think anyone expected Schlittler to perform as well as he has. He is the first Yankees rookie to start eight games and give up three runs or less in each of those starts since Masahiro Tanaka in 2014.

“I saw him in Spring Training, and I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s gonna dominate a little bit.'” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said about Schlitter after the game. His teammates in the clubhouse, as well as the organization definitely think and speak very highly of Schlittler and his potential.

 ”I said last week, try to get to, you know, six, seven innings and, you know, put the team in a spot to win.” Schlittler said to the media after his start. Schlittler has reinforced that he likes to go deep into games multiple times. Schlittler is the kind of pitcher who shows a lot of tenacity on the mound and is never going to quit.

“Cam’s got a presence out their” Catcher Ben Rice said when talking about the outing. “He’s kind of a rough-and-tumble kind of guy just a blue collar attitude, a lot of poise out there.” The players around him, especially his catcher who is essential to his success on the mound, and their communication during the game is something that Rice and Schlittler have made a point to improve upon.

“We communicated along in the dugout.” Schlittler said. “That’s something I needed to, you know, kind of work on. That’s something I’ve been trying to do more, you know, in between innings over the last, you know, two, three starts.” Those three stars — against the Twins, Rays and Nationals — Schlittler has combined for a 1-0 record with 16.2 innings pitched, surrendering only one run and striking out 22 batters. Two of those three starts — against the Rays and Nationals, in which he pitched a combined 12.2 scoreless innings — Ben Rice was his catcher, a recipe that we could see a lot more down the road.

Cam Schlittler’s dominance is making him a true force to be recon with in major league baseball, becoming one of the more underrated dominant pitchers — like Clarke Schmidt before the injury — in Baseball. Schlittler has the potential to be a true ace in this league, let’s hope he can be that ace in pinstripes.