TAMPA — Schlitt happens.
History did not, but neither did an awful loss, which the Yankees flirted with as much as Cam Schlittler did a perfect game.
After David Bednar blew a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Wells homered in a chaotic 10th inning to save the Yankees and send them to a fifth straight win, 6-4, over the Rays on Wednesday night at Steinbrenner Field.
The red-hot Stanton, pinch-hitting to lead off the top of the 10th, clobbered a missile of a two-run homer to left field off Pete Fairbanks.
Austin Wells made it back-to-back with his second home run of the night to provide some insurance for Devin Williams with a 6-3 lead.
Williams gave up a leadoff single that scored a run in the bottom of the 10th and then invited trouble by allowing a double that put the tying run at second.
But he responded by striking out Chandler Simpson, Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe in succession to record his first save since July 29.
“Incredible,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We had hoped to do it about 45 minutes earlier, but finishing off a great road trip into an important homestand.”
It gave the Yankees (69-57) full steam ahead into a crucial four-game showdown with the Red Sox back in The Bronx, moving within four games of the first-place Blue Jays in the division.
They now lead the Red Sox by 1 ¹/₂ games and the Mariners by two games for the top AL wild-card spot.
“Great road trip,” said Stanton, who has hit 14 home runs in his last 31 games. “Hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball in the air, getting a lot of homers, timely hitting. Clicking on a lot of cylinders, so it’s good to take this into the weekend.”
All 19 of the Yankees’ runs in this two-game series came via the home run — after tying a franchise record with nine long balls Tuesday — while their 14 homers tied the MLB record for the most in a two-game span.
On the same Steinbrenner Field mound where he flashed his potential this spring, reinforcing to the Yankees that he was leading the next wave of pitching prospects, Schlittler made a run at history by bringing a perfect game into the seventh inning.
Simpson broke it up with a clean single up the middle to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but the 24-year-old Schlittler, in his seventh career big league start, finished with 6 ²/₃ shutout innings and eight strikeouts.
He dominated the Rays (61-66) with his high-90s fastball and his best curveball of the year, staying efficient and not entering a three-ball count until the seventh inning.
“The mistakes I’ve made in the past [were] getting too comfortable with the offspeed early and not really making them hit the fastball first,” Schlittler said. “So the goal is to make them hit my heater, and once they do that, move on to other things. But they didn’t really do that, so was just able to keep attacking with that.”
Schlittler was happiest about going deep into the game and keeping some of the bullpen fresh heading into what he called “probably the biggest series of the year.”
“Wow, what a performance,” Boone said. “Stuff was overwhelming.”
Once the Rays broke up Schlittler’s perfect-game bid, the attention turned to the Yankees clinging to a 2-0 lead that quickly became perilous.
But Luke Weaver relieved Schlittler with the bases loaded and struck out Hunter Feduccia on three pitches to put out the fire.
After Trent Grisham homered for the second time in the top of the eighth inning to put the Yankees up 3-0, Weaver gave up a solo shot to Bob Seymour in the bottom of the frame.
Bednar was then one strike away from ending the game in the bottom of the ninth before Feduccia hit a two-run double to tie it.
But thanks to more heroics from Stanton — “He’s an animal,” Boone said — the Yankees were still able to fly home on a high note as they try to dig further out of their two-month skid.
“We’ve never lost confidence,” Boone said. “They’ve never lost confidence, even through some really tough times and some dark days. It’s there to be had. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve obviously put together a really good road trip off winning series. We got to keep going, though.”
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