Yankees hope Luis Gil’s hitless outing can be ‘springboard’ to help get him in rhythm

Luis Gil was terrific for the Yankees again on Friday night. 

The right-hander stepped up and delivered six hitless innings to help New York take the opener of a huge three-game set with the division rival Boston Red Sox. 

Gil was forced to work through traffic at times, but he navigated it well. 

He retired first four hitters he faced before Masataka Yoshida reached on an error in the bottom of the second, and after he advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, the youngster got a pop out to strand him there. 

He then issued a one out walk to Ceddanne Rafaela in the bottom of the third, but a fly out and groundout helped him escape without any damage from the top of the order. 

Gil put together a perfect fourth, but had to battle again in the fifth. 

He was hurt by some questionable calls on back-to-back free passes to lead off the inning and then balked them into scoring position, but was able to retire the next three to get out of the frame with the no-hitter still in-tact.

A Jazz Chisholm throwing error then pushed Trevor Story into scoring position with one out in the sixth, but Gil got a strikeout and groundout to again escape the inning and end his night without any damage.

He finished with four walks and four strikeouts across six hitless innings, bringing his ERA to an outstanding 0.99 in five career starts against the Sox. 

“Where we are in the division right now, everything is so tight,” Gil said through a translator. “All of the games are so important for us and we want to just do the best we can and keep things right there and just find a way to contribute.”

Gil certainly has done his part of late — including tonight, he’s now allowed just one earned one over his past two outings, both of which have come against divisional opponents in the Sox and Blue Jays. 

He's now down to a 2.83 ERA on the season. 

Aaron Boone went as far as saying this is the best he’s been since returning from the IL. 

“He started losing the strike zone a bit,” the skipper said. “But his stuff was good and he was able to get big outs. To buckle down in the fifth and hold them at bay there was big, hopefully this is another springboard for him.”