It looks like what Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake deemed a “one-off concern” for Luis Gil last week against the Orioles may not be so simple.
The Yankees’ revelation could not hold off the Mets’ hot bats in a 12-2 beatdown at Citi Field as the Bombers got swept in the two-game Subway Series.
Gil allowed three earned runs on four hits and four walks, committing an error along the way, across 4 ¹/₃ innings before he was replaced by Caleb Ferguson just ahead of the 87-minute storm delay in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Gil’s velocity was within his normal range, but his lack of “stuff” may be a sign that his arm is beginning to tire.
“No,” Gil said through a translator when asked if he was feeling fatigue. “I feel very healthy, thank God, and like I mentioned before, I feel very strong.”
Prior to Wednesday, Gil had pitched 81 ¹/₃ innings this season after pitching just four minor league innings last season while coming back from 2022 Tommy John surgery.
“Of course, that’s the question,” manager Aaron Boone said afterward of the fatigue speculation. “We’ll see. He seems to be in a really good physical place.
“He’s a young pitcher that hasn’t pitched for a couple of years. There’s bumps along the way. It’s not always just because, you know, we want to talk about his innings thing and all that. Sure, that could become an issue. That could be a fair point, but I think tonight was more about just being, again, a little bit out of whack mechanically, and therefore he lacked the consistency in his fastball shape, the command of it, and how it was coming out of his hand.”
Gil was in the rotation to start the season because of the injury to Gerrit Cole and was one of the best pitchers in baseball through June.
He held a 2.03 ERA and allowed just 18 runs in his first 14 starts, but it all fell apart last Thursday against the Orioles in the 17-5 rout that saw Gil allow seven runs and eight hits in just 1 ¹/₃ innings, pushing his ERA to 2.77.
After Wednesday night, his ERA moved to 3.15.
“You can expect moments like this in any sport, including baseball,” Gil said. “For me, pitch execution is really important. It’s something that I’ve been working on, and I definitely want that to be better. But at the same time, it’s all a learning experience, going through moments like this and just keep working.”