Yanks CRUSH Orioles for Luis Gil; NY 13 Baltimore 1

August 4, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

In his first major league appearance and start, Luis Gil pitched 6 innings of 4-hit shutout baseball, striking out 6 — and got plenty of run support in the Yankees 13-1 win over Baltimore on a warm summer Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Boston lost so the Yanks moved to 5 behind them, and are 6 behind Tampa.

1. Gil Exciting and Terrific

Luis Gil has risen quickly in the Yankee system recently — he was acquired from Minnesota in a trade for outfielder Jack Cave in 2018. He has a blazing fastball, but the rub has been that he needs to throw more strikes and refine his secondary pitches.

He did in this game. He threw mostly a 98-MPH, 4-seam fastball with movement, mixed with an 85-MPH slider, and by the 3rd and 4th inning, started mixing in a 92-MPH changeup.

The scouting report on Gil:

“Gil has higher-octane stuff than most starters, beginning with a fastball that operates at 95-98 mph for several innings at a time and regularly reaches triple digits with significant riding life up in the strike zone. He made progress last year with his power breaking ball that features slider velocity in the mid-80s and sometimes has more of a curveball shape. He also has a hard changeup that parks around 90 mph with fade and sink, though it lacks consistency.

Gil generates premium velocity with relatively little effort but has difficulty harnessing his stuff. He reduced his walk rate to a career-best 4.2 per nine innings in low Class A in 2019 but will have to throw more strikes and continue to refine his secondary pitches in order to make it as a starter.”

2. Yankee Offense Explodes

After getting only 1 run against sinkerballer Jorge Lopez the night before in a 7-1 loss, the Yankee offense exploded against Alexander Wells and the Baltimore bullpen of Adam Plutko and Shaun Anderson.

Gleyber Torres doubled in Gary Sanchez in the 2nd inning to begin the scoring.

The Yankees poured 5 more runs on the board in the 3rd to make it 6-0:

Giancarlo Stanton hit a 3-run bomb in the 4th to make it 9-0.

In the 8th, Tyler Wade doubled in a run, and Anthony Rizzo grounded out to bring home a run to make it 12-1. Aaron Judge then finished off the night’s scoring with an opposite-field blast for the 13-1 win.

The Yankees pounded out 15 hits.

3. Ridings Impresses

Adding even more fun to the evening — the Yankees pulled big 6’8, 25-yr-old Stephen Ridings out of their back pocket and he DOMINATED in the 7th — striking out the side like they weren’t there.

The Yanks signed Ridings in the winter after he was released by Kansas City. Ridings is a combined 5-0 1.24 in AA and AAA for the Yanks so far this year. He was originally drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2016 in the 8th round.

Interestingly enough, Luis Gil, Reggie McCain, and Stephen Ridings combined for a no-hitter at AAA Scranton earlier this season — something most Yankee fans are aware of — but might not remember exactly who the pitchers were.

And so we tweeted — perhaps the Yanks should bring up Reggie McCain.

After the game, Ridings tweeted this:

The Yankees pitched Brody Koerner — a 6’2 righty out of Winchester, Virginia in the 9th. Koerner allowed a run but pitched a full inning.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401228658

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