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How Yankees, Luis Gil are explaining shocking slump

Posted on by angelo

NEW YORK — New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil plodded toward the dugout looking straight ahead, not a hint of emotion on his face. Just a few weeks ago, the 25-year-old rookie would hear cheers every time he walked off the mound. But Tuesday brought a reaction from the crowd that’s becoming too familiar: cold indifference.

For the third straight start, Gil struggled with his once-dominant fastball and his command, giving up four earned runs and lasting just four-plus innings in a 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

What’s wrong with Gil? The Yankees don’t quite know.

“You’ve got to consider everything,” manager Aaron Boone said.

As for Gil, he was searching, too.

“Maybe the delivery wasn’t quite what I wanted,” Gil said via the team’s Spanish interpreter. “I can’t pinpoint exactly why.”

The loss couldn’t be pinned squarely on Gil, who didn’t get much help from his offense outside of a three-run sixth inning. The Yankees bats were stymied by righty starter Graham Ashcraft, who entered the night with a 5.45 ERA in 13 starts. Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 32nd home run in the seventh inning to cut the score to 5-4. The Yankees entered the day tied with the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the American League East.

But Gil was the main culprit thanks to an uneven night that turned ugly late, yielding two hits, including a fifth-inning two-run blast from No. 9 hitter Will Benson. He also walked three batters while striking out three. He threw 83 pitches, just 49 of them for strikes.

Gil walked the first batter he faced on four pitches. Then he retired nine batters in a row before coughing up a leadoff triple to Elly De La Cruz in the fourth inning. He then gave up three of the four runs the Reds scored in the fifth. Of the 37 fastballs he threw, he generated just one swing-and-miss. His final three batters: a hit-by-pitch, a home run and another hit-by-pitch.

Over his last three starts, Gil has a 14.90 ERA. Over his first 14 starts, he had a 2.03 ERA and there was talk of his potentially starting at the All-Star Game. Now, it’s not a lock that he’ll even make the team with his ERA sitting at 3.41.

Is Gil just getting tired? All season, the Yankees acknowledged they didn’t know for sure how the Dominican Republic native would react to a drastically increased workload. After throwing just four innings last season — all of them in the minor leagues while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery — he’s already at 89 2/3 innings.

“I don’t think it’s a fatigue issue,” Boone said. “I think it’s a little-out-of-sorts issue and having a harder time correcting on the fly.”

The manager added, “He’s having a hard time self-correcting when he gets out of whack, and then the mechanics start to go a little bit. I thought overall the (pitch) profiles were better tonight. But still work to do.”

Issues repeating his delivery, from his release point to other factors, have dogged Gil since his days in the minor leagues. And even when Gil was cruising this season, he walked lots of hitters. Boone agreed the issue could simply be more development-related than anything else. With Gil also pitching just 25 2/3 innings in 2022, he has lost a lot of development time.

“Just mechanically syncing your body to the point where you can feel comfortable and like I mentioned before,” Gil said, “sometimes you hit bumps when you’re competing at this level. But at the same time, I feel sure of myself that working hard I will be able to get out of it and not let things like that keep happening.”

Gil made each of his last three starts with an extra day’s rest. Overall, 11 of his 17 starts were with extra rest.

The Yankees still have one more day off before the All-Star break begins July 15. With Gil slated to make his next start Sunday versus the Boston Red Sox at home and the Yankees off Monday, the team could push him to Tuesday at the Tampa Bay Rays. Bay Rays. That would also enable him to make the team’s final start of the first half against the Orioles on July 14.

Or they could hope Gil has only hit a brief rough patch and kept him on schedule.

Catcher Jose Trevino said he thought he saw progress from Gil on Tuesday, but that he’s not always able to pick up on Gil’s mechanical flaws.

“There’s sometimes where I feel like I can see it,” Trevino said. “But it’s a work in progress. Everybody’s working on something. That’s just his. That’s what he’s working on.”

The Yankees need Gil to turn things around. Their starting rotation saw so much success over April and May that it still ranks fifth in overall ERA at 3.52. But going into Tuesday, Yankees starting pitchers had a 5.37 ERA in 27 games since June 1. That was 27th worst, ahead of just the Miami Marlins (5.40), the Oakland Athletics (5.41) and the Colorado Rockies (6.28).

When Gil reached the dugout at the end of his start Tuesday, he accepted light high-fives and shoulder slaps from teammates who could probably tell he wasn’t in the best mood. Then he sat down leaning over, his hands clasped between his knees.

“It’s tough,” Gil said, “but there’s no giving up. That’s what it is. You keep fighting. You keep fighting, and then you turn it around.”

But how the Yankees and Gil will go about turning it around remains the question.

(Photo: Luke Hales/Getty Images)