“It was fun while it lasted”; “League has caught up to him” - Yankees fans lose hope as Luis Gil struggles with third consecutive start
Luis Gil's struggle continues in his third straight start as he exited Tuesday's game against the Cincinnati Reds with another disappointing pitching stat line. In his 4.0 innings pitched, Gil allowed four earned runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts. This comes after Gil was crowned the AL Pitcher of the Month in May. A month later, his ERA has spiked from 1.99 to 3.41.
In his previous two starts, Gil gave up five earned runs in 4.1 innings against the Mets on June 26 and seven earned runs in only 1.1 innings against the Baltimore Orioles on June 20.
His pitching struggles have caused an uproar within the fan base as they lose hope in the rookie.
"It was fun while it lasted, need Schmidt back," one fan asked for the former pitcher to return from injury.
"League has caught up to him," another added.
One fan expected a series of moves, sending Gil back to the bullpen and bringing in former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer.
"Surely that's Gill to the bullpen now? He clearly doesn't have the mental toughness to bounce back. You have Bauer tearing it up in Mexico that you can get for peanuts if ownership has the balls. What's more important to Hal & Cash, politics, or winning a championship???" one fan suggested.
"We officially need starter help now. This start was crucial in that decision imo.. we need a lot at the deadline," another wrote.
"Not surprised to me at all, he wasn't built up to absorb that many innings and the Pen was where he belonged to do it," another thinks the move to pen is the way forward.
Aaron Boone discusses Luis Gil's recent stretch
There's no doubt that Luis Gil is struggling and to get him back to his previous best, the Yankees are exploring options, one of which is to push his next start to a later date.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone added that “a couple rough outings that I don’t think are necessarily the result of anything physical.”
"I think there’s probably a little bit of that,” Boone said. “But I think it’s also [that] he hasn’t executed like he [had been]. I don’t know if that’s how the ball’s come out, release points, things like that, mechanically.
"Frankly, [it’s] just a young pitcher going through some ebbs and flows where it hasn’t been as dominant. Hopefully we get him synced up mechanically and within his delivery that puts him in a good spot this next turn."
If Luis Gil continues to struggle as a starter, the Yankees may consider using him from the bullpen. But as Boone said, he's just going through "ebbs and flows."