Every starting pitcher in the majors will stumble in what is a marathon of a season. The poor games are written off as duds and generally moved past.
A dud from Luis Gil, though, is worth noting.
The Yankees’ righty had been enjoying a magical and dominant beginning to his season, replacing Gerrit Cole in the rotation then pitching like the ace, owning a 2.03 ERA through 14 starts.
Start No. 15 spiked his ERA all the way to 2.77. Gil had allowed seven runs total in his previous nine games before he was torched for seven runs while recording four outs in an eventual 17-5 loss to the Orioles on Thursday.
Maybe it was an isolated bad day against a powerful Baltimore offense that jumped Gil early in counts. Maybe it was a sign that Gil — whose professional career-high in innings was the 108 ²/₃ he logged in 2021 and who threw just four minor league innings last season after 2022 Tommy John surgery — is beginning to tire.
“I would say it’s a one-off concern currently, and you just keep monitoring,” pitching coach Matt Blake said before the Yankees and Mets began the Subway Series at Citi Field on Tuesday. “If you see it again, then it’s a two-off concern. It’s one of those things where, all right. It’s a hiccup. How do we adjust from there? How do you bounce back?”
You begin by evaluating what went wrong.
During the outing, the stuff — both in movement and velocity — was about on par with Gil’s norms. The Yankees are not placing a firm innings limit on Gil’s season, but instead are evaluating whether his arm and body show that the workload has become too great.
One of those areas to monitor is the slot at which Gil throws, because a tired pitcher’s slot tends to drop.
“We have seen a little bit of a lower arm slot maybe the last few outings, but some of that I think is his mechanics wandering on him a little bit more so than fatigue,” Blake said. “But obviously it’s something we want to be on top of.”
Gil, who will get the ball for Wednesday’s series finale, walked two and hit a batter in his 1 ¹/₃ innings Thursday.
Blake said the righty’s command was “not great” and pointed out that Gil is typically now facing teams for a second time — he had shut down the Orioles over 6 ¹/₃ innings in early May.
Baltimore batters appeared to adjust. Leadoff hitter Gunnar Henderson doubled on the first pitch he saw (a fastball). Cedric Mullins homered on a second-pitch slider. Adley Rutschman singled on a first-pitch fastball. Ryan Mountcastle reversed a first-pitch changeup for a double.
There are plenty of alibis for Gil’s rare dud. The Yankees will hope the fairly correctable factors — those not related to the possibility that his arm is growing fatigued — are to blame.
“I think the biggest thing is just being ready for [opposing teams] to do stuff like that to him now that guys are starting to get a better read on him,” Blake said. “Understanding what the approach is going to look like — they get on the fastball in certain areas.
“That’s all stuff that we talked about with him, and being able to have a Plan B when things like that happen.”