AL Division Series Game 2: Cam Schlittler vs. Freddy Peralta

While the saying goes, "A series doesn't start until the home team loses", simple math will tell you that the team without home-field advantage can't exactly rely on that (for obvious reasons). So while the Rays winning tonight would simply mean holding serve, that doesn't quite work in a five-game series. In the 30-plus years of the Division Series, only eight teams have ever come back from 0-2 — including the 2001 and 2017 Yankees. But after an unsuccessful comeback last year, the 2026 Yanks certainly don't want to have to try and be the ninth.

Fortunately, they have their ace on the bump to try and send the series to the Bronx tied. Cam Schlittler will unanimously win AL Cy Young and finish top five in MVP voting, but his real brilliance is shown in October. Two of his three career postseason starts have been scoreless brilliance against Boston, but he did also pitch into the seventh in Game 4 of the ALDS last year against a Blue Jays team that provided a similarly pesky challenge to this Rays team.

In the regular season against the Rays, it was a mixed bag. Schlittler struck out eight, but allowed three runs in five innings in a loss on April 12th at Tropicana Field, but he came back to throw eight innings of one-run ball in early July in one of his best starts of the season. The third and final meeting was limited to just three frames to manage his pitch count ahead of the postseason, but the Rays made him throw 70 pitches in that abbreviated outing in a meaningless late September start. Expect them to try to grind him out of the game as they did that day.