Luis Gil’s brilliance just part of magic around these Yankees

Joel Sherman

MLB

By Joel Sherman

There is so much good the Yankees do in a game.

And if I had unlimited space, I would regale you with all of it. Gleyber Torres steadily hitting more and more like Gleyber Torres and delivering a homer Tuesday night.

Anthony Volpe’s maturity in his at-bats shining again as he navigated from 0-2 to 2-2 and then spoiled a terrific Bailey Ober slider before lashing a single to right. That preceded a two-run double from Aaron Judge in the third inning, which meant Volpe and Judge are the first teammates with concurrent 30-game on-base streaks since Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones for the 2003 Braves.

Giancarlo Stanton nearly homered in each of his first three at-bats either fair or foul, and then destroyed a two-run homer in the eighth. He is basically an afterthought on this club — an afterthought with 15 homers.

The defense, which was third in Defensive Runs Saved, was familiarly spotless. Ian Hamilton and Luke Weaver delivered dominant 1-2-3 relief innings. The Yankees won their sixth straight, 5-1 over the Twins. They are 43-19 and I can expound on all of this and more.

But how do you ignore that Luis Gil is now finding himself in sentences with Christy Mathewson? That he is making you wonder if there is going to be a third “G” with Guidry and Gooden when it comes to magical pitching seasons?

Forget about allowing runs. Gil has basically stopped permitting hits. Minnesota managed one in six innings against the Yankee righty and that was because Juan Soto was playing Little League depth against .165-hitting, ninth-place batter Christian Vazquez and a ball got over his head. Of course, Vazquez did not score. Another thing Gil does is go all steel curtain when there are runners on base.

“It’s hard to get a hit off of him,” Aaron Boone said. “His stuff really plays.”

Gil first triggered positive reviews from teammates and scouts in spring, but come on, who saw this coming? Gil has made 12 starts and allowed three or fewer hits in 10 of them. Gil has worked at least six innings and allowed one or no runs in seven straight starts. Would you like to know how many times that has been done in Yankee history? That answer is none. The last time it was done by anybody was seven straight by Yu Darvish in 2020. It has only been done now four times by a rookie as the great Sarah Langs pointed out — the first one and the record is eight straight by Mathewson … in 1901.

Gil leads the AL in ERA at 1.82. His batting average against is a MLB-leading .129. The next best for a qualifier is .167 by Philadelphia’s Ranger Suarez. And Boone noted, “I don’t think he was overwhelming” against Minnesota. But amazingly there is a veteran-ish glean coming over Gil now. He seems completely unfazed by any of this. There is a routine-ness that has set into his dominance. A calm he has found even without his elite stuff or when in tight moments. The Twins were hitless in six at-bats with runners on base and opponents are now 7-for-76 (.092) in those situations. They failed in both tries with men in scoring position, making it 2-for-34 (.059) for the year against Gil.

Remember that Gil missed almost all of the past two seasons following Tommy John surgery. He was the replacement for Gerrit Cole. And if this Yankee season needed any other positive signs, Cole made his first rehab start back from his elbow nerve injury and threw 3 ¹/₃ shutout innings and 45 pitches on Tuesday in Double-A. Cole had indicated to me recently he hoped to be up and down and at 45-ish pitches his first time and that might be able to shorten how many rehab starts he needs if, for example, he can get to 60 and then 75 in his next two outings, perhaps he can return before making a fourth.

And then what? A Yankee team that has had Judge and Soto overpowering opponents from the lineup can have Cole and Gil in the rotation? It isn’t like the group could do much better, considering the whole rotation’s ERA is now 2.73 and Cole won the Cy Young last year at 2.63.

Also, you do wonder if midnight ever comes for Gil, who is at 69 ¹/₃ innings. If he did nothing else but competently bridge until Cole returned, he would have done his job for the whole season. Instead, he has been Cole. He has been arguably the best pitcher in the sport. He doesn’t seem to be getting tired. He seems to be getting better.

There is so much going right and magical so far in this Yankee season. So much you can write about, talk about. But how do you not begin with the gift that was impossible to see coming? The guy who has had some Gerrit, Guidry and Gooden about him, has edged into a sentence with Mathewson and has been the King of the Gil.