After months of social media dramatics, New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler on April 23 made his professional debut at Fenway Park. Possibly to his surprise, he made it out alive. The Boston Red Sox did not.
Schlittler helped the Yankees complete a three-game sweep in Boston, during which the Red Sox scored just three runs. Two of them came against the surging sophomore, who went eight innings, allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits, fanned five batters and walked one. Schlittler's ERA sits at 1.77 over 35.2 innings this season.
While sweeping the 2026 Red Sox is hardly an accomplishment, it still would've felt good to stick it to New York and Schlittler at least once. The young righty expected loads of smack talk from Sox fans, which would be tough to pull off when the Red Sox have been as horrible as they are.
Part of Schlittler's postgame comments about playing at Fenway should alarm the men in charge in Boston. The 25-year-old told reporters that Red Sox fans, for the most part, stayed "respectful," but he also made sure to note that "it seemed like there were a lot of Yankee fans here.”
Cam Schlittler comments on how many Yankees fans were at Fenway Park during April 21-23 Red Sox series
Cam Schlittler said the Boston fans weren't nearly as harsh as he expected.
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) April 24, 2026
“You underestimate how many good people show up to the ballpark,” Schlittler said. “It was great. For the most part, they were really respectful, and it seemed like there were a lot of Yankee fans…
And of course there were. Even just looking at records, the Yankees have the best one in the American League and the Red Sox have the second-worst (just ahead of the Kansas City Royals). In the deeply troubling economy we find ourselves in, it makes sense that plenty of Red Sox fans would rather watch the game at home than pay an arm and a leg to watch a losing squad at Fenway Park.
Fenway Sports Group has also made a concerted effort to appeal to visiting fans around the league, to make Fenway Park even more of a tourist destination. This effort went a bridge too far when the team store at Fenway began stocking Yankees merchandise ahead of the series — the store used to stock merchandise from teams across MLB, but once it stopped, the return of Yankees products is simply too much. But anything for a quick buck from the many rival fans now flooding Fenway Park, right?
Red Sox fans had high expectations for the team after its return to the playoffs in 2025, and the scale and scope of their offseason moves reflected a front office that cared, at least a little bit (until you remember the decision not to give Alex Bregman a no-trade clause to sign with Boston). Now, many of said moves look more like a strange allocation of resources rather than productive upgrades. There's still five months of baseball for the Red Sox to figure themselves out, but a month into the season, the "it's early" excuses don't cut it anymore.
Fenway Park was recently overrun by Yankees fans because the Red Sox think they're smarter than everyone else. There were many obvious answers to better the team this offseason and Boston took the unpredictable route to improvements, which haven't yet materialized. When the Red Sox didn't upgrade their streaky, powerless offense in one of the harshest divisions in MLB, of course their rivals would walk all over them.
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