HOUSTON — Luis Gil was already on the clock, but the Yankees sped it up after his clunker Sunday afternoon.
Deep in the heart of Texas, Gil got deep-sixed against the Astros and then got sent packing for Triple-A after a 7-4 loss at Daikin Park, as the Yankees decided not to wait around until Carlos Rodón returns from the injured list early next month.
Gil, the weak link in what has been a strong rotation, gave up six runs in four-plus innings with plenty of loud contact, including a pair of two-run homers that put the Yankees (18-10) in an early hole and helped snap their eight-game winning streak.
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Try it freeEqually as troubling as the hard contact was the lack of swinging and missing. The Astros made contact on all 22 of Gil’s four-seam fastballs they swung at. He generated only three whiffs overall on the 34 swings they took.
“It’s tough when you’re falling behind and you’re not consistent with the secondary or that consistent velocity and profile of the fastball to get them off some of the secondary,” manager Aaron Boone said before Gil was optioned. “A combination of not quite good enough command, the stuff not being as good at is when Luis is at his very best. Add that up and you struggle to get that swing and miss.”
With an off-day coming Thursday, the Yankees do not need a fifth starter again until May 5. If they stick to their original plan with Rodón — who is expected to need at least two more rehab starts, the next one coming Wednesday or Thursday — that would likely mean needing a spot start from someone like Elmer Rodríguez. They could also turn to Paul Blackburn or Ryan Yarbrough, who have served as long men in the bullpen, and carry an extra reliever instead.
Gil, who started the year in the minors because the Yankees did not need a fifth starter out of the gates, posted a 6.05 ERA across four starts. His best one came against the lowly Red Sox on Tuesday, when he tossed 6 ¹/₃ scoreless innings, but even then his stuff was not very sharp.
On Sunday — the first start of Gil’s big league career in which he did not record a strikeout — his fastball velocity actually ticked up a bit but still lacked effectiveness. He described the lack of swing and miss, which was a central part of his standout season in 2024 as the AL Rookie of the Year, as “frustrating” and likened it to a “bad slump.”
“That’s what we’ve been working on, to be more consistent executing a good fastball with good velo,” Gil said through an interpreter. “We’ve been working on all that stuff together, to be better at that. When you have a little more velo, you can create more swing and miss. But little by little, I think I’m getting there. Just got to keep working.”
Now, the 27-year-old right-hander will be working on that back at Triple-A.
Gil’s rough start snapped a strong stretch of starting pitching that had fueled the winning streak. The six runs he allowed nearly matched the number of earned runs (seven) the Yankees had allowed in their past eight starts combined.
“Just been struggling to get consistency with his delivery and fastball profile,” Boone said.
Christian Walker crushed a two-run homer off Gil in the first inning — on a changeup down the middle — before Isaac Paredes clobbered a sinker for another two-run shot in the third. Gil gave up a walk and a double to the first two batters he faced in the fifth before Boone decided he had seen enough, with both of those runs eventually coming in to score against Blackburn.
The Yankees, meanwhile, mustered only three hits in seven innings against Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti — one being Aaron Judge’s 10th home run, a solo shot in the sixth inning on his birthday, to make it a 7-1 game.
They later mounted a two-out rally in the ninth to push across three runs, but it proved to be too little, too late.
