The New York Yankees rolled into today as winners of three-straight games after they swept the Detroit Tigers at home over the weekend. With the Houston Astros coming into town desperate to get their season back online, they’d send out a familiar foe in the form of Justin Verlander, who has killed the Yankees in his illustrious career. Luis Gil would toe the slab against the future Hall of Famer, making his first start against this still-scary Houston lineup, in a matchup that pinned one of the best starters of the century against an up-and-coming phenom.
With some incredible run support from the Yankees’ offense, Luis Gil was able to dominate the Astros, as they cruised to their fourth-straight win, this time in blowout fashion.
Luis Gil Sparkles, Alex Verdugo Shines Again, Yankees Make it Four Straight
The first inning would see these two rivals trade blows right away, as Kyle Tucker would greet Luis Gil with a solo blast and hand the Astros an early 1-0 lead. It seemed as if Houston would walk into the Bronx eager to take down the Yankees, but they were sorely mistaken on that front. Justin Verlander would get into an early jam with two on and one out against Alex Verdugo, who has enjoyed his time as the clean-up hitter thus far. He’d launch a three-run blast, his fifth of the season, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
After trading zeroes in the second inning, Verdugo would come up and deliver once more, smoking a single up the middle for an RBI and giving the Yankees a 4-1 lead. Justin Verlander didn’t have it tonight, and the Yankees smelt blood in the water as Anthony Volpe smacked a home run in the fourth and Giancarlo Stanton lasered a two-run bomb at nearly 119 MPH in the fifth. At seven earned runs, this was the worst start Justin Verlander has ever had against the Yankees, but the run parade wouldn’t end there.
Aaron Judge would send a single up the middle to make it 8-1 in the sixth, with Jon Berti adding on with an RBI single of his own in the seventh. Anthony Volpe would have an RBI groundout, and the Yankees would score in six of the eight innings they got a chance to hit in. On the pitching side of things, Luis Gil didn’t allow another hit after the Tucker home run, although he did walk four batters in the process. His stuff was great and his ERA on the season now sits at a sparkling 2.92.
Ron Marinaccio would deliver two innings of scoreless baseball in relief, quietly having a nice bounceback season after being rendered completely ineffective in 2023. Michael Tonkin would get the ball in the ninth, struggling with command before collecting himself to finish the ninth inning with two unearned runs as a result of an error by Jon Berti, and the Yankees are now 24-13; a season-high 11 games over .500 and mere percentage points behind the Orioles.
Carlos Rodon will look to bounceback after an ugly start tomorrow as he toes the slab against Spencer Arrighetti at 7:05 PM EST; this game is on Amazon Prime Video.
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