The game was effectively over by the third out of the second inning. Cam Schlittler took care of the rest.
Schlittler was untouchable Friday night at Yankee Stadium, allowing just four hits and no walks over six innings while striking out 13 Cincinnati batters on 96 pitches. He did not allow a run. The right-hander improves to 8-3 with a 1.71 ERA, and the Yankees needed little else.
New York's offense did its damage early. Jazz Chisholm opened the scoring with a solo home run to right, 390 feet, to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Later in the same inning, Ben Rice launched a three-run homer to center — 433 feet — as Jones and Volpe scored ahead of him, pushing the lead to 4-0. Rice finished 2-for-4 with 3 RBI on the night. He is hitting .294 with 21 home runs and 52 RBI on the season. Chisholm went 1-for-3 with a walk, scoring twice. Anthony Volpe added a run in the eighth, singling to left to score Chisholm Jr. and extend the lead to 5-0.
Rhett Lowder absorbed the loss for Cincinnati, falling to 3-4. He allowed 6 hits and 4 runs over 5.1 innings, walking 3 and striking out 5 with a 4.82 ERA. The Reds managed only 4 hits on the night and were shut out across all nine innings.
New York stands at 45-28, first in their division. Cincinnati falls to 35-38, fifth in theirs. Both clubs had dropped their previous game.