Yankees’ Luis Gil shaky again as Mets sweep season’s first Subway Series
NEW YORK —After getting obliterated by the Orioles his last time out, Luis Gil didn’t exactly return to form against the Mets on Wednesday.
While the right-hander showed improvement after allowing seven earned runs over 1 1/3 innings against Baltimore on June 20, Gil wasn’t his best again in a 12-2 Yankees loss at Citi Field. That was evident right away, as the flamethrower surrendered a leadoff double, hit a batter and issued a two-out walk to load the bases in the first inning.
Fortunately for Gil, he escaped that jam unscathed. However, the Mets got to him in the third when J.D. Martinez blooped an RBI single to right field. Francisco Alvarez followed up by lining a two-run homer in the same direction.
Alvarez later added a sacrifice fly off of Caleb Ferguson in the fifth. That run was also charged to Gil before a torrential downpour halted the game for one hour and 27 minutes.
The starter earned another after Yoendrys Gómez walked a run in following the delay.
Gil, looking to rebound from the worst start of his career, logged 4 1/3 innings, four hits, five earned runs, four walks, two strikeouts and 87 pitches in his 16th start of the season. He also hit two batters and made a throwing error on a pickoff play.
Gil now has a 3.15 ERA after entering the Baltimore start with a mark of 2.03.
While Gil held the Red Sox to one run over five innings without his best command on June 14, he’s been off in four straight starts. That dates back to his “Sunday Night Baseball” performance against the Dodgers on June 9, in which Gil allowed three earned runs over 5 2/3 innings.
Since taking the mound that day, Gil has tallied 16 1/3 innings, 21 hits, 16 earned runs, 11 walks and 14 strikeouts. Before that Dodgers start, he had totaled 44 2/3 innings, 15 hits, three earned runs, 15 walks and 50 strikeouts over his previous seven starts.
May’s American League Pitcher of the Month, Gil looked like a shoo-in for the All-Star game. He was even a candidate to start the exhibition.
Gil still has a case for the Midsummer Classic, but his recent rough stretch coincides with constant speculation over how the Yankees will handle his workload. The 26-year-old is in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery, and he threw just four innings last season and 25.2 in 2022.
The Yankees said that Gil was physically fine and that his stuff looked relatively normal after his start against the Orioles. The club has also said that Gil is not necessarily on an innings limit, as teams have more scientific ways of monitoring pitchers now.
