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Try it freeTORONTO — The emergence of Cam Schlittler has given the Yankees an enviable top three.
What became clear Saturday was they do not have a No. 4.
Luis Gil was given the ball instead of Will Warren, and Gil then had to give the ball to his bullpen in the third inning.
The 2024 AL Rookie of the Year, who has never looked quite the same in an injury-abbreviated season, was short and ineffective in a 10-1 bludgeoning by the Blue Jays in Game 1 of the ALDS at Rogers Centre.
Gil was often unhittable and often without control last season, when he relied on heat that touched triple digits and struck out 10.15 batters per nine innings but walked 4.57 per nine.
This year, after returning from a right lat strain in August, Gil’s velocity has dipped in what the Yankees have said is an effort to better locate. In some ways, he may be trading off some of his best stuff for some harder contact.
He walked no one Saturday. But he also was knocked around.
“They’re big league hitters, they’re there to swing the bat, and they were able to do that tonight,” Gil said through interpreter Marlon Abreu after lasting just 2 ²/₃ innings in which he allowed four hits and two runs — both coming on home runs — while striking out two.
The third batter of the game for the Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., saw a changeup that Gil tried to bury and instead got too much of the plate.
Aaron Boone takes the ball from starting pitcher Luis Gil. AP- CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS
The Yankees killer hammered it out to left field for a lead the Blue Jays never surrendered.
An inning later it was Alejandro Kirk — who saw a 95.1 mph fastball, Gil living in the mid-90s and not upper-90s now — who jumped on a mistake four-seamer and crushed a no-doubt shot to left.
By the time Guerrero smacked another single in the third, manager Aaron Boone had seen enough.
Luis Gil walks back to the dugout after he is pulled from the game during the third inning. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post“I wasn’t expecting that,” Gil said about being lifted after 48 pitches, “but at the same time Boone’s the manager. He makes those calls.”
Boone’s call generally worked — Tim Hill and Camilo Doval cobbled together a couple of scoreless innings, and the Yankees were down just 2-1 before the dreadful seventh and eighth innings.
“He did enough that we felt like we could still piece it together there,” Boone said of Gil, against whom Boone believed Toronto was hunting pitches at the top of the zone.
On an evening the Yankees offense did little, it might not have mattered which fourth starter the Yankees tried.
The Yankees have Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Schlittler expected to pitch in Games 2-4, respectively.
If the series goes the distance, the heavy favorite is for Fried to come back on four days of rest for Game 5 rather than Gil make another start.
