A former seventh-round draft pick with only 14 MLB starts under his belt just saved the New York Yankees season. The reigning American League champions strung together a fourth-inning barrage and made some nice defensive plays, but Cam Schlittler led them to a 4-0 Wild Card Series-clinching victory versus the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night. Thanks to a one-of-a-kind pitching performance, the club will square off with the Toronto Blue Jays in the divisional round.

Unforeseen meteorites land during October baseball quite frequently, but this one deserves to be placed in a special tier of its own. In a high-stakes matchup against his childhood team and New York's most detested foe, Schlittler was absolutely magnificent. He struck out an astounding 12 batters in eight scoreless innings and did not even record a walk. Boston could not muster an extra-base hit in the decisive Game 3.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes this was not just a clutch performance, but also a sign of what it is to come during the 24-year-old's MLB career.

“A star is born tonight,” he told YES Network's Meredith Marakovits after the win. “He's a special kid, I'm telling you. It's obviously amazing stuff, but he's shown us this from the jump. He's not afraid. He expects this… and I'm not surprised at all by what he did.”

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The Yankees' faith was rewarded in epic fashion 

Although few people could have expected Cam Schlittler to utterly dominate the Red Sox in a do-or-die clash in raucous Yankee Stadium, Boone believed he was the right man to push New York to the next stage of the playoffs. A Wednesday night interaction solidified that confidence.

“Felt great about where he was mentally last night when he was leaving,” he said, via the SNY Yankees Videos X account. “I knew it wasn't going to be too big for him. What a performance.”

Schlittler continues to make himself a big part of the Yankees' plans, both now and moving forward. He earned this Game 3 responsibility after tallying a 2.96 ERA, 84 strikeouts and a .217 batting average against in 73.0 innings pitched this season. Now, after silencing Boston with a masterful showing on Thursday, he has likely earned even more trust heading into a collision with the Blue Jays.