Luis Gil’s ERA shrinks again as Yankees topple Twins in series-opener, 5-1
NEW YORK — Hours before Luis Gil started against the team that traded him to the Yankees in 2018, manager Aaron Boone raved about the 26-year-old.
Sure, there’s been a lot to like about Gil’s performance, which included a rotation-leading 1.99 ERA, a boatload of strikeouts and an American League Pitcher of the Month honor for May. But Boone found himself more impressed by the work that has gotten Gil to this level of dominance.
“I’ve been excited about just what a good pro he’s turning into and what a good routine he’s starting to develop and how he attacks the weight room now and the training room and the classroom,” Boone said. “Those are things he’s really moved the needle on and become really good at, as well as being coachable through all this. Yeah, he’s had a ton of success, but there have been bumps along the way within an outing that I feel like he’s really learned from.”
On Tuesday, the bumps included three walks, one of which came on four pitches to Minnesota’s Willi Castro in the fifth inning. Gil had shown some iffy command in the inning before, so pitching coach Matt Blake visited Gil, even though the righty had otherwise been cruising.
Gil responded by getting ahead in the count against Christian Vázquez before inducing a double play. He ultimately logged six scoreless innings while holding the Twins to one hit in a 5-1 Yankees win.
Gil also struck out six over 88 pitches while lowering his ERA to 1.82 after 12 starts. No starter in the American League has a better mark, currently making Gil a more than deserving option to start next month’s All-Star Game.
Time will tell if that happens, as schedules don’t always align and the Yankees are monitoring Gil’s workload following Tommy John surgery. However, the club has certainly gotten more than it expected after naming the flamethrower its fifth starter following Gerrit Cole’s elbow injury.
While Gil continued his stellar stretch of success on Tuesday, Gleyber Torres started the scoring in the second inning when his fifth homer of the season barely cleared the short porch in right field. The solo blast warranted a review to check for fan interference, but replay showed nothing more than the ball bouncing off of a leaping Max Kepler’s glove.
In the third inning, Aaron Judge remained red-hot, shooting a high outside fastball down the right-field line for a two-run double against Twins starter Bailey Ober.
Minnesota got on the board in the seventh when Tommy Kahnle surrendered his first run of the season on a Royce Lewis dinger. However, Giancarlo Stanton repadded the Yankees’ lead in the eighth, sending his 15th homer into the second deck for a 110.4-mph, 420-foot, two-run shot.
With another win in the books, the Yankees are now 43-19 and the winners of six in a row. They’ll start Carlos Rodón against Minnesota’s Chris Paddack on Wednesday.
