How Luis Gil’s Disaster Start Could Affect the Yankees Season

Luis Gil’s start to this season was truly something to see. For the first two and a half months of the season, we were watching one of the best pitching seasons I can recall. Personally, I remember predicting Gil’s success after watching him pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks in his first start of the season, so like many fans when they predict a player’s success, I’ve been very vocal about Gil. I was proud to watch him succeed because I felt like I saw it when nobody else did. However, his start on Thursday afternoon was probably the worst start I’ve seen from a pitcher this year. Don’t get me wrong, it would have been MVP caliber for any pitcher to stay at the pace he was at, as his ERA was at 1.82 through his first 11 games pitched, but what happened on Thursday afternoon was more than out of character. Gil gave up seven earned runs in a mere 1.1 innings pitched, along with eight hits allowed. The poor outing brought Gil’s ERA up from 2.03 to 2.77, and it was statistically the worst start from a New York Yankee this year. 

Though they played the series without superstar Aaron Judge, the Yankees fell two games to one in their three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles. Though they’ve been missing some players, the Yankees have seemingly cooled down over the past week, as they lost their previous series to the Boston Red Sox, and another one to the Los Angeles Dodgers not long before. Before the past few weeks, it was extremely rare for the Yankees to lose a series. They were the first team in baseball to have 50 wins and scored unlike any other team in baseball. Gil’s disaster start on Thursday, accompanied by their 17-5 loss, seemed to be the climax in a very cold streak for the team. At least, that’s how I view it. We’ve seen this Yankees team have a summer collapse in past seasons, and I think this will either be a wake up call for New York, or it will be the start of a downfall. 

I don’t expect Gil to pitch like that again, and the reality is that every pitcher has bad outings every now and then. Being that he’s a rookie, there’s also a chance that his pitching style has been figured out. I do think that this is somewhat of a breaking point in the Yankees season, though. It’s a crucial time for them to prove that they really are one of the best, if not the best, teams in baseball. The Orioles are a strong team, as well as a team that the Yankees may face down the road, specifically in the playoffs. If New York can start dominating against baseball’s better teams, they’ll prove that they really are the best of the best.