The schedule turned Charmin-soft once again on Monday and, once again, the Yankees were ready.
Thrilled to have the Red Sox leave town after needing a victory Sunday night to avoid a four-game sweep, the Yankees, behind six scoreless innings from seed-throwing rookie Cam Schlittler and home runs from Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jasson Dominguez, pounded the horrible Nationals, 10-5, in front of 36,939 at the Stadium.
Leading 10-0 entering the ninth, Yerry de los Santos, working his third inning in relief of Schlittler, walked in a run with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, giving way to Mark Leiter Jr., who allowed a grand slam to Jacob Young, which made it 10-5.
Schlittler, who took a perfect game into his previous start against the Rays and instead settled for 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowed four hits and three walks Monday night. Schlittler (2-2, 2.76), making his eighth career big-league start, matched his season-high in strikeouts with eight, his total in Tampa last Wednesday when he retired the first 18 batters he faced.
The Yankees (71-60), who got two hits and three RBIs from Cody Bellinger, stayed one-half game behind the Red Sox for the American League’s top wild-card spot and a half-game ahead of the Mariners (who hosted the Padres late Monday night).
Rice, getting yet another start behind the plate for the slumping Austin Wells, hit his 21st homer of the season and Chisholm, who homered twice in Sunday night’s 7-2 victory over the Red Sox, set a new single-season high with his 25th blast. Dominguez hit a three-run homer, his 10th of the season and his first since July 23, in the seventh to make it 10-0.
The Yankees outhit the Nationals (53-78), 12-9, four of the latter coming in garbage time in the ninth. Nationals righthander Brad Lord (5-6), who came in with a 3.46 ERA, allowed seven runs (six earned), eight hits and two walks over 4 1/3 innings.
Schlittler fell behind leadoff man James Wood before striking the leftfielder out looking at a 100-mph fastball. After CJ Abrams flied softly to center, Luis Garcia Jr. stung a base hit to right, the 107.9-mph liner glancing off the tip of a leaping Chisholm’s glove. Josh Bell grounded to second to end the 15-pitch inning.
The Yankees quickly went about giving Schlittler the lead. Trent Grisham struck out swinging, but Rice and Judge walked back-to-back and, with Bellinger up, a passed ball advanced the runners. Bellinger’s sacrifice fly made it 1-0.
Schlittler provided a 12-pitch shutdown second, striking out Dylan Crews swinging at a 99-mph fastball to end the inning.
Schlittler walked Young with one out in the third but picked the centerfielder off for the second out. He struck out Wood swinging at a curveball, leaving Schlittler at 42 pitches through three.
Rice, slashing .304/.403/.607 over his previous 16 games, made it 2-0 with one out in the bottom half, crushing a first-pitch slider 435 feet into the bleachers in right-center.
Schlittler faced his first jam in the fourth but got out of it. Abrams led off with a sharp single to left and, after Schlittler struck out Garcia swinging at a curveball, Bell lined a single to left to put runners at the corners with one out. But Riley Adams weakly popped a 97-mph fastball to Paul Goldschmidt at first and, with Paul DeJong up, Rice threw out Bell trying to steal for the third out of the inning.
Schlittler struck out DeJong and Crews on 98-mph fastballs to start the fifth before walking Robert Hassel III. He struck out Young looking at a 91-mph cutter on his 79th pitch, his seventh strikeout through five innings.
Caballero and Grisham opened the bottom of the fifth with consecutive singles. Jose Caballero, who led the majors in stolen bases coming into the night with 40 and starting a second straight game at short for the struggling Anthon Volpe, took third on Rice’s flyout to center. Judge sliced a ground rule double to right to bring in Caballero and put Grisham on third. With the infield in, Bellinger stroked a two-run single to center to make it 5-0.
Chisholm followed by hammering one into the second deck in right to make it 7-0 and end Lord’s night.
The first two Nationals reached to start the sixth when Wood singled and Abrams walked, but Schlittler struck out Garcia swinging at a curveball and got out it when Chisholm, fielding a ground smash one-hopper off the bat of Bell, started a nifty inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.