Luis Gil has had a great first full year in the New York Yankees starting rotation. But even after helping the Bombers beat the Oakland Athletics 7-4 on Sunday, Gil’s manager still finds one aspect of his game disconcerting: his first-inning struggles.
“Yeah, a little bit," Aaron Boone said (per YES Network) when asked if he was concerned about Gil's opening issues his last two starts. "You know, want him to get in that rhythm, obviously, early. That first inning the last few [starts], like you said, has been a bugaboo for him.”
After retiring the first two A’s he faced in Sunday's matchup, Gil walked JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers to set up a two-run double by Tyler Soderstrom. He pitched well the rest of the way, leaving two inherited runners to Ian Hamilton in the top of the sixth inning, which the reliever subsequently allowed to score on a Ryan Noda double.
In the 26-year-old right-hander's previous start, against the Seattle Mariners, Gil was extremely lucky to get out of the first inning unscathed. He hit the first batter of the game, got a fly ball out and then walked the next two Mariners to load the bases. After a pop out, Mariners’ DH Victor Robles made the odd decision to try stealing home and was thrown out to end the threat.
Gil has struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning all year. Coming into the game Sunday, batters had a .336 OBP against him in the first inning. He’s now issued 25 free passes and hit two batters in across the first frames of his 28 starts.
Still, a breakdown of Gil’s inning-by-inning ERA for the season as a whole shows that the first is actually his best in terms of earned runs allowed. He’s done an excellent job of limiting the damage overall, holding opposing hitters to a .158 average and posting a 2.25 ERA in the first frame.
Now 15-6 with an outstanding 3.27 ERA and 166 Ks in 146 innings, Gil is likely to start postseason games for the Yankees. But if he can’t find a way to throw more strikes in the first inning, he may not be able to limit the damage against the top lineups in the league.
