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.<\/p>\n
Equally as troubling as the hard contact was the lack of swinging and missing. The Astros made contact on all 22 of Gil\u2019s four-seam fastballs they swung at. He generated only three whiffs overall on the 34 swings they took.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough when you\u2019re falling behind and you\u2019re not consistent with the secondary or that consistent velocity and profile of the fastball to get them off some of the secondary,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said before Gil was optioned. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 Rod\u00f3n \u2014 who is expected to need at least two more rehab starts, the next one coming Wednesday or Thursday \u2014 that would likely mean needing a spot start from someone like Elmer Rodr\u00edguez. 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Yankees](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/new-york-yankees-starting-pitcher-126458822.jpg\")
Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil (81) delivers a pitch during the second inning against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
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 \u00b9\/\u2083 scoreless innings, but even then his stuff was not very sharp.<\/p>\n
On Sunday \u2014 the first start of Gil\u2019s big league career in which he did not record a strikeout \u2014 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 \u201cfrustrating\u201d and likened it to a \u201cbad slump.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working on, to be more consistent executing a good fastball with good velo,\u201d Gil said through an interpreter. \u201cWe\u2019ve 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\u2019m getting there. Just got to keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the 27-year-old right-hander will be working on that back at Triple-A.<\/p>\n
Gil\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cJust been struggling to get consistency with his delivery and fastball profile,\u201d Boone said.<\/p>\n
Christian Walker crushed a two-run homer off Gil in the first inning \u2014 on a changeup down the middle \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
The Yankees, meanwhile, mustered only three hits in seven innings against Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti \u2014 one being Aaron Judge\u2019s 10th home run, a solo shot in the sixth inning on his birthday, to make it a 7-1 game.<\/p>\n
They later mounted a two-out rally in the ninth to push across three runs, but it proved to be too little, too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Luis Gil was already on the clock, but the Yankees sped it up after his clunker…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":755971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5918,1266,405,403,2228,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-755970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-luis-gil","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116475059159483423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}