Yankees' Ben Rice homers twice, Cam Schlittler dominates Red Sox in Game 1 of Wild Card Series

To Bucky “Bleeping” Dent and Aaron “Bleeping” Boone — whose respective epic postseason homers immortalized them as forever enemies of the rabid New England fan base known as Red Sox Nation — add Cam “Bleeping” Schlittler.

But instead of breaking New England hearts at the plate, the latter continues to torture those fans, and his hometown Red Sox, from the mound.

The righthander, who grew up a part of Red Sox Nation in the Boston suburb of Walpole, Mass., on Tuesday night added another chapter to the one he started last year around this same time.

The presumed AL Cy Young Award winner dominated over 6 1⁄3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out 10 in leading the Yankees to a 9-0 beatdown of the Red Sox in Game 1 of the AL Wild-Card Series in front of an on-its-feet-throughout sellout crowd of 48,437 at the Stadium.

“Incredible,” catcher Austin Wells said of Schlittler.

Wells, who hit just .186 during a dismal season at the plate, had two RBIs, including a two-out RBI single in the second that gave Schlittler and the Yankees bullpen all they needed.

But it was Ben Rice, another son of New England, having grown up in Cohasset, Mass. and coming off a 41-homer season, starring on offense.

Getting his whacks in at the area as well, Rice homered twice, including a grand slam in the eighth that turned the proceedings into garbage time, the blast giving the Yankees a 9-0 lead. Rice, who had a team-high 97 RBIs this season, drove in six runs.

“Yeah, I’ll remember getting a ‘W’ versus the Red Sox. There’s nothing better than that,” said Rice who, despite where he grew up, was a Yankees fan, of Derek Jeter especially.

“I’ll remember Cam going out there and just being lights out, like he always is. It was just an awesome night. Great way to kick off the series.”

The Yankees throw Max Fried Wednesday night in Game 2 as they try to close out the best-of-three series and move on to St. Petersburg to face the top-seeded Rays, who won the AL East.

“The job’s not done,” said Schlittler who, after a one-out single in the first by Adley Rutschman, retired 13 straight and heard “MVP! MVP!” chants throughout his outing. He left the game with one on and one out in the seventh, having thrown a career-high 117 pitches, and Paul Blackburn induced a double-play ball to jump-start his 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings.

Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle, coming off a season in which he went 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA, including 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA in two starts against the Yankees, allowed one run and five hits over 4 2⁄3 innings Tuesday. Boston manager Chad Tracy pulled the plug early on his lefty ace and ended up getting burned by his bullpen. Lefthander Erik Miller allowed a 423-foot dead-to-center homer by Rice, the first batter he faced, in the fifth that made it 2-0.

The Yankees outhit the Red Sox 12-3.

Still, the story of the night was, predictably, Schlittler.

Predictable because the 25-year-old seemingly has made it a mission in his young life to torment his boyhood team and the sizable contingent of passionate fans who follow them.

It began last year in the deciding Game 3 of the wild-card when, drawing inspiration from some ugliness on social media by Red Sox fans directed toward his family, his mother in particular, Schlittler struck out 12 over eight scoreless innings of a 4-0 victory.

He followed that up this regular season by going 2-1 with a 0.74 ERA in four starts vs. Boston, that sterling record part of a 14-6, 1.95 regular season that is sure to net him the Cy Young.

Though not quite as electric Tuesday night as he was in last year’s Game 3, Schlittler was electric enough.

His first pitch to Red Sox leadoff man Roman Anthony was a 101-mph fastball for a strike. Schlittler is known for a repertoire that includes three virtually unhittable fastballs, and he called on those plenty Tuesday night — 85 of his 117 pitches were either four-seam fastballs, sinkers or cutters. But he mixed in a season-high 32 curveballs (27%), way up from his average of using that pitch 10% of the time in his outings during the regular season.

“He’s throwing hard. He also had a good curveball today that you know it’s there, but he used it a little bit more often,” Tracy said. “He landed it if he wanted to for strikes. He was able to get it beneath for swing and miss. We weren’t able to do much with him.”

Schlittler, though the Red Sox were successful in driving up his pitch count, made it into the seventh, departing to a thunderous ovation after allowing a one-out single to Wilyer Abreu.

Schlittler was serenaded with more “MVP! MVP!” chants as he headed to the home dugout.

“I mean, we’ve already got an MVP in this locker room. He’s won three of them,” Schlittler said almost sheepishly, referencing Aaron Judge, not able to play in the series because of a right calf strain. “I wouldn’t say I am an MVP.”

His teammates, and certainly the sellout crowd, clearly disagree.

And Red Sox Nation, no doubt, had other descriptions.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

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.