Gil GREAT But Yanks Shut Out. Boston 3 NY 0

July 9, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

The good news is that Luis Gil pitched GREAT. After two horrible starts in a row, he looked better in his last start — and in this one looked like the pitcher who dominated the first few months of the season — pitching a 3-hit shutout against the Red Sox into the 7th with 9 strikeouts and no walks.

Unfortunately, Rafael Devers got him with a solo homer in the 7th, and on the other hill Kutter Crawford was shutting out the Yanks for 7 innings.

The Red Sox bullpen completed the shutout, and Boston got 2 more runs on solo homers — one by Ceddanne Rafaela in the 8th against Luke Weaver, and another solo homer by Devers in the 9th, against Michael Tonkin — and that was ballgame.

On a hot Sunday night in the Bronx. A little less humidity than the Rain Forest of the day before but still hot.

“He’s got that short arm; ball’s got some carry to it; I think he got it to the spots he wanted to,” said manager Aaron Boone about Crawford. “Pitched at the top of the zone; working the cutter off of it; slowing you down enough with the sweeper/slider; didn’t feel like we saw a ton of splits from him. And, you know, we had a couple of ‘just misses’ where we hit the ball to the fence; pressured him a couple of times just couldn’t finish it off. He beat us tonite.”

NY falls to 55-37, and 3 games back of Baltimore. Boston improves to 49-40.

1. Gil Great

The loss threw cold water on the good vibes of Ben Rice‘s 3-homer game and Yankee 14-4 win the day before — but there was plenty of good news for Yankee fans in that Luis Gil had his second good start in a row — and in this one was really smoking.

His fastball was mowing down batters, and his off-speed was off-speeding. He struck out 9 in 6.2 innings and didn’t walk a batter.

When asked what was different in this start, Gil said through the Yankee translator, “Keep it simple; just being able to execute more pitches. Been working all week to be able to execute good fastballs out there and mix all the pitches.”

It was a 0-0 pitcher’s duel in the top of the 7th when Gil blinked — Rafael Devers, who kills the Yanks nonstop — got hold of a 98-MPH four-seam fastball that saw too much of the plate, and hit it just barely over the wall to opposite-field left for a homer. Boston 1 NY  0.

When asked how tough an out Devers is, Gil said “If I’m able to execute pitches I feel I have a pretty good chance of getting guys out, regardless of who the batter is. That’s what it’s all about — you miss a pitch and the quality of hitters in this league will make you pay.”

2. Crawford Great Too

But Kutter Crawford was great too — shutting out the Yanks through 7 innings on 4 hits with his short-arm delivery.

The Yanks had a chance in the 6th to get to him in a 0-0 game. Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a single, but Trent Grisham lined out to 2nd and Cabrera was caught off 1st for a double play. DJ LeMahieu then doubled to center, but Ben Rice struck out to end the inning.

3. Devers Kills Yanks

With the Yanks down 1-0, Luke Weaver was smoking in the top of the 8th — striking out the first 2 batters — when Ceddanne Rafaela got hold of a 90-MPH cutter for a 412-foot homer to left, giving Boston a 2-0 lead.

And in the 9th, Michael Tonkin struck out the first batter, but Devers got the Yanks again — hitting a 93-MPH four-seam fastball from Tonkin 423 feet to center for a 3-0 Boston lead.

4. Bosox Bullpen Finishes the Shutout

With NY down 2-0, Oswaldo Cabrera worked a 1-out walk against Justin Slaten in the bottom of the 8th, giving the Yanks hope — but Slaten struck out Trent Grisham and got DJ LeMahieu to ground out.

Kenley Jansen pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569819

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