Luis Gil throws another gem, this one supported by HRs from Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge
The Yankees’ No. 1 starter hasn’t thrown a pitch this season. But Gerrit Cole watched and cheered from the dugout on Thursday as the team got another ace-like performance in a 5-0 victory over Seattle before 43,121 at Yankee Stadium.
Luis Gil allowed one tainted hit in 6 1/3 brilliant innings and Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge homered as the Yankees earned a split of the four-game series after dropping the first two.
Gil (6-1, 2.11 ERA) walked two and struck out eight in a 96-pitch gem. The rookie is 5-0 with an 0.59 ERA in his last five starts.
“Just another great performance by him,” manager Aaron Boone said.
And another great performance by a Yankees starting pitcher.
Over the last 11 games, Yankees starters have thrown five-plus innings and allowed two runs or fewer for the first time in franchise history. The starters’ ERA over that span is 0.82. The team has won nine of those 11 games.
Victor Gonzalez, Nick Burdi and Clay Holmes finished the shutout. Holmes, who suffered his second blown save of the season in Monday’s loss, picked up the final four outs with two strikeouts.
Seattle’s only hit against Gil was a fourth-inning infield single by J.P. Crawford.
Crawford hit a 101-mile per hour screamer to the right of shortstop Anthony Volpe, who fielded the ball with a slide on the backhand but dropped it on the transfer. Volpe picked it up and threw but it was too late to get Crawford.
Seattle didn’t get another hit until Mitch Garver led off the ninth with a clean single to center off Holmes. Pinch hitter Jorge Polanco added a bloop single to left with two outs before Holmes got Ty France on a fielder’s choice grounder for his 14th save.
Stanton gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the second with a 445-foot home run to centerfield off Luis Castillo (4-6, 3.31ERA). Stanton’s 12th home run hit the bottom of the glass above the netting protecting Monument Park.
Judge made it 2-0 in the third with a 414-foot blast to the Yankees bullpen in right-centerfield. Judge has 15 home runs with six coming in his last 11 games and nine coming in his last 16.
“This is the Judgie that we know,” Oswaldo Cabrera said. “I’m not impressed because this is the captain.”
The Yankees are 36-4 when Judge and Stanton both homer.
Volpe (2-for-5) extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a first-inning single. He added a double in the seventh, stole third and scored on Juan Soto’s single to make it 3-0.
Later in the inning, Alex Verdugo and Anthony Rizzo hit sacrifice flies to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead.
The Yankees begin a West Coast trip in San Diego on Friday.
Judge, who lamented the two losses to Seattle, said: “There's a lot of room for improvement. A couple of things didn’t go our way this series, so we'll tighten some things up. But the thing I love about this team is it doesn't matter the situation we're playing. We're down in the game, up in the game, and everybody's always on top of the game, ready to compete. So expect to go out there and compete on the West Coast.”
Notes & quotes
Austin Wells pinch hit in the ninth for Jose Trevino, who Boone said was feeling “ill” and “should be fine.” . . . Verdugo and Cabrera both had what were originally scored errors changed to singles for them. Verdugo, in particular, seemed surprised when his tough fifth-inning chance was initially called an E-6. The official scorer changed it a few innings later.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
