Luis Gil didn’t shrink in the harsh spotlight of pitching against the Dodgers, but he wasn’t at his best either in a 6-4 win to salvage the final game of the series in The Bronx.
The right-hander, who had given up just four hits in his previous three starts, wasn’t quite as dominant Sunday night, as he allowed three runs on five hits in 5 ²/₃ innings, his shortest outing in over a month.
Still, his performance stood out to Aaron Boone and his teammates, particularly Gil’s ability to limit the Dodgers’ top four hitters to one hit, as Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith combined to go 1-for-11 versus him.
“That’s one of the best teams in the league,’’ Aaron Judge said. “He showed up big-time. I know he gave up three runs and left with them having the lead, but what he showed against that lineup and their top guys, attacking those guys, that’s who you want on the mound in a situation like that.”
“It was a battle,’’ Gil said through an interpreter. “It was fun.”
Gil just finished a stretch in which he’d given up just three earned runs and 15 hits in 44 ²/₃ innings in his previous seven starts, only allowing one hit in his first four innings on Sunday — a leadoff double by Teoscar Hernández in the second.
Gil stranded him there.
In the fifth, though, Gil gave up a hard one-out double to Andy Pages and then a single to Gavin Lux that sent Pages to third.
Lux stole second and Gil whiffed Kiké Hernández before Mookie Betts drilled a two-run double to left that tied the game at 2-2.
Boone said he believed Gil tired late in the outing, which led to him giving up a go-ahead solo homer to Teoscar Hernández to end Gil’s night in the sixth.
He ended up allowing three runs, the most he’d given up since allowing five at Milwaukee on April 26.
That was all before Juan Soto’s replacement in the outfield, Trent Grisham, helped bail out Gil with a three-run homer that put the Yankees back in front against Tyler Glasnow in the bottom of the sixth.
With the comeback victory on Sunday, the Yankees have won all but two of Gil’s 13 starts.
And even with the uneven results by Gil on Sunday, his ERA is still just 2.04.
“In the small time I’ve seen him, he lives for those moments,’’ Judge said. “I look forward to more.”
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