"King of the Gil" - Aaron Judge celebrates Luis Gil's AL pitcher and rookie of the month honors in May
Luis Gil has been phenomenal this season, and Yankees captain Aaron Judge acknowledges it. The starter, who got the position in the first place due to Gerrit Cole's injury was voted the American League Rookie of the Month and the AL Pitcher of the Month for May, the MLB announced on Monday.
In May, Gil went unbeaten with a clean 6-0 record across six starts while pitching a 0.70 ERA (3 ER/38.2 IP), which included 14 hits with 12 walks, 44 strikeouts and 0.67 WHIP.
Aaron Judge expressed his delight for the recognition Gil received as he took to social media and celebrated his achievement.
"[King] of the Gil," he wrote.
Gil became the first rookie to win a monthly award with the Yankees since Miguel Andujar did in June and August of 2018.
Aaron Judge himself put up monstrous numbers in May as he was named the American League Player of the Month on Monday. He was outstanding , hitting.371/.488/.928, with 12 doubles, 14 home runs and 27 RBIs.
Yankees manager full of praise for rookie Luis Gil's May performance
Luis Gil's performance this season is one to look upon as the Yankees hurler keeps pitching strong, building a good case for him to start the All-Star game this season.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged his efforts on the mound and praised him on his development and increase in pitching arsenal.
“Luis has been as good a pitcher as there is in the league,” Boone said on Sunday. “So the impact has been enormous.”
“He’s got the big fastball, which has always been his calling card, but he’s gotten really polished,” Boone added. “As we’ve seen here these first two months, to see him hunger to get better and learn from everything that he’s gone through, build a really solid routine, that’s what’s been really satisfying about Luis.”
The efforts of Luis Gil and Aaron Judge have propelled the Yankees to the top of the AL East leaderboard. The Yankees (42-19) are 2.5 games ahead of the second-placed Baltimore Orioles.