The Mariners got a taste of the Luis Gil experience, and it didn’t go down as easily as they did Thursday afternoon in The Bronx.
The Yankees’ rising star hurler continued his recent dominance by limiting Seattle to one hit — and an iffy one at that — with eight strikeouts over 6 ¹/₃ dominant innings in a 5-0 victory at the Stadium.
“Obviously their starter’s on a really good run. Gil threw the ball really well and we didn’t get anything going offensively against him,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “I’ve talked about when on the road you really gotta hit and we didn’t get anything going.
“Credit to their starter. He’s been really good, and we knew coming into the game it was gonna be a tough battle, hoping to get more pitches on him. But he was efficient early in the game and that was kind of the story. … There’s a reason he’s on a good run right now. That’s pretty electric stuff.”
The 25-year-old righty only was charged with one hit allowed, a grounder by leadoff batter J.P. Crawford that shortstop Anthony Volpe couldn’t handle in the fourth.
“He came out attacking,” Crawford said. “His fastball is really electric and I think we were on time, but it has a lot of life and we were just missing it. He came out and dominated us, so I tip my hat to him.”
Servais added that Gil used “three really good pitches” to keep the Mariners off-balance, led by a fastball with “all kinds of life to it.” He didn’t walk a batter until issuing two free passes in the sixth, but he struck out No. 3 hitter Luke Raley to escape the inning.
“He’s dialed in right now,” 2022 All-Star first baseman Ty France said of Gil, who is 5-0 with a 0.59 ERA over his past five starts since May 1. “He’s mixing pitches really well. The fastball is jumping out of his hand. He just moved the ball around the zone and made it tough on us. … You can see why he’s had success.”