The Mariners got a taste of the Luis Gil experience, but it wasn’t as easily accepted as it was in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon.
The Yankees’ rising star pitcher continued his recent dominating form, holding Seattle to just one hit (and that was a close one) and striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings in a 5-0 win at the Stadium.
“Obviously their starting pitcher is in great form. Gil pitched great, but we just couldn’t do anything offensively against him,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We’ve talked about really having to hit on the road and we just couldn’t do anything.”
“With all due respect to the starting pitcher, he’s pitched really well. We knew it was going to be a tough battle going into the game. We wanted to throw more pitches to him. But he was efficient early in the game. That was the crux of the story. … There’s a reason he’s doing well right now. That’s exciting.”
The 25-year-old right-hander allowed just one hit in the fourth inning when shortstop Anthony Volpe was unable to handle a grounder from leadoff hitter JP Crawford.
“He came out aggressively,” Crawford said, “his fastball had real energy and I thought we had good timing on our pitches, but there was just life in the pitch and we just missed it. He came out and dominated us. Kudos to him.”
Servais added that Gill confused the Mariners with “three really good pitches,” including a fastball that was “all-around lively.” Gill didn’t walk a batter until the sixth inning, when he walked two batters and then got out of the inning by striking out No. 3 hitter Luke Raley.
“He’s in a good spot right now,” 2022 All-Star first baseman Ty France said of Gill, who is 5-0 with a 0.59 ERA in his past five starts since May 1. “He’s mixing up his pitches really well. The fastball is popping out of his hands. He’s moving the ball all over the zone and giving us a hard time. … You can see why he’s having success.”
