Yankees 2, Orioles 0: Gil dazzles, Holmes shuts the door

02/05/2024 03:35

Luis Gil and Clay Holmes shine in Camden Yards to get the Yankees on the board in this series.

I'll start this recap off with a confession: I was busy Saturday and Sunday, so the last Yankee games I watched before tonight's were the extra innings debacle last Friday in Milwaukee, Monday night's dull 2-0 shutout in Baltimore, and Tuesday's infuriating game where it seemed like an internal team memo went out instructing every batter not named Juan Soto or Austin Wells to ground into double plays or swing at pitches a foot outside of the zone. I went into tonight's game hoping for a palate cleanser but prepared for another painful watch.

The first inning was not encouraging. Anthony Volpe struck out, Soto ripped a single, Aaron Judge looked overmatched on his way to a strikeout, and Giancarlo Stanton struck out on a low-and-away off-speed pitch. This type of inning is fast becoming uncomfortably familiar. In fact, five of the first six outs procured by Corbin Burnes were strikeouts.

Luis Gil, for his part, turned in a strong two innings to open the game. The O's could not hit his fastball. James Smyth posted an interesting tidbit after the first 1-2-3 inning—apparently the fastball is a pitch Baltimore struggles with.

The Yankee at-bats looked a little better in the third. Oswaldo Cabrera managed to single in an 0-2 count and subsequently stole second off of Burnes. But Anthony Volpe drove one to center to no avail, and Soto grounded out after an eight-pitch battle.

Any hope that they could build off of this in the fourth was dashed when Judge grounded out, Stanton fouled out, and Rizzo grounded out sharply to first. Man, this heart of the order has been so frustrating to watch this series—collectively, they have two hits in as many games through the fourth.

Yet Gil looked great the first four innings. He struck out Adley Rustchman in the fourth on three pitches, and then made Ryan Mountcastle look foolish on a perfectly-placed changeup for his fourth strikeout. Gil has impressed his first season back from Tommy John surgery—the rate statistics confirm what the eye test shows us. He's got great put-away stuff, demonstrated by his 11.6 K/9 rate. He's had huge control issues this year, but when he can rein those in, he can be dominant.

In the fifth, the Yankees looked doomed to another 1-2-3 inning until Jose Trevino was able to get an infield single deep enough in the hole to prevent a play by Gunnar Henderson. Oswaldo then drilled a wall-scraping home run into the foul pole, nestling the ball into the grating. The Yankees will take them any way they can get the, at this point—they have scored six runs through 23 innings in Baltimore thus far.

In the Yankees' half of the sixth, Soto stole second after working a walk. This at least preemptively eliminated a double play, as Judge then hit a tailor-made double play ball. Soto was then thrown out at third after testing the arm and awareness of Rutschman. Giancarlo then lined out to right, stranding a rare RISP for the Yankees.

Thankfully, Gil turned in his best performance of the year so far. Through six, he had five strikeouts. More impressively, he walked only one, an area that he has struggled in so far this season. Gil was pulled after 6.1 innings as Caleb Ferguson came on in relief with a man on first. Ferguson subsequently struck out the Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg to end the inning.

Ian Hamilton came on in relief of Ferguson in the eighth. He walked Cedric Mullins and appeared to hit Heston Kjerstad on the wrist (as opposed to the knob of his bat) to get his appearance off to a very inauspicious start. Hamilton got one big out, inducing a foul pop out from Anthony Santander.

With the double play set up, Aaron Boone didn't mess around and called on Clay Holmes to get a five-out save with Gunnar Henderson at the plate. Holmes came in and dominated the young star, throwing two straight sliders down and in, essentially challenging Henderson to repeat his home run on Monday. Holmes then struck out Rutschman to end the Oriole threat. In hindsight, the gutsy move by Boone worked. Holmes looked positively filthy in the eighth.

And in the ninth. After another 1-2-3 Yankee half inning, Holmes came back out to close things out. After giving up a single to Ryan O'Hearn, he struck out Ryan Mountcastle before inducing Colton Cowser to ground into a force out. Holmes then got Westburg to ground out to third to secure the save.

Holmes looked fantastic tonight. He's actually been fantastic all season, and deserves some adulation for keeping the back end of the Yankee bullpen rock solid. The same can't be said about the offense—after the offensive explosion in Milwaukee over the weekend, they have looked extremely flat, especially the heart of the order. In times like these, the pitching needs to be razor sharp, which, so far, it has been. Let's hope Judge, Stanton, Rizzo and company can rouse themselves out of their slumps now that it's May.