Yankees’ Luis Gil impresses in must-see fashion

With young pitchers in New York — and Luis Gil is still plenty young enough at 26 — we are more used to them making noise, turning each start into an event, when the young guy is a Met. And when his best pitch is a fastball, not a changeup, which Gil’s just might be.

In the 80s, of course, we had every start Dwight Gooden made when he was 19 and 20 not just feeling like an event, but feeling like the main event in baseball on that day or night. Later on, like some shooting star, when he was briefly the Dark Knight of Gotham, we had Harvey Day for the Mets when Matt Harvey would pitch.

Then came Jacob deGrom at Citi Field, and we had deGrom Day when he would pitch — boy, would we ever — in that period when he had established himself as pretty much the best starting pitcher on the planet.

But it has been a long time coming with a Yankees kid — until this season, with Gil, who has dazzled the opposition all season long. Gil, in fact, has been every bit the ace of the team Gerrit Cole would have been if he hadn’t gotten hurt in Spring Training. The fastball kids like Paul Skenes make more noise in the catcher’s glove. No starter has been better than Gil.

Sunday at Yankee Stadium, with the Dodgers in town to play the Yankees (ESPN, 7 ET), should be looked at as Gil Day. Pronounced “Heel.” As in King of the Gil. He’s the young guy who didn’t even have a spot in the Yankees’ rotation in the spring until there was pain in Cole’s right elbow. Now someone who has never pitched more than 96 innings in his professional career has merely become indispensable on what has been the most complete team in the whole sport, at least to here.

Here are some things you need to know from the Elias Sports Bureau about the young man from the Dominican if you don’t know already:

• Gil has joined the very short list of Yankees pitchers who have gone 7-0 with an ERA under 1.00 over a seven-start span. The others are Bob Turley in 1958, when Turley’s ERA was 0.86 over a similar span, and Tommy John, who had an 0.89 stretch back in 1980.

• Gil is the fourth rookie pitcher in Major League Baseball history to have seven consecutive starts in which he has pitched at least six innings and not allowed more than one run in each, and the first since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, at the height of Fernandomania.

• Gil is now the first pitcher in Yankees history to have seven straight starts with at least six innings pitched and one or fewer runs allowed.

• And for now, and as long as he keeps pitching this way, Gil has the chance to become just the fifth rookie pitcher to start an All-Star Game, joining a list that includes Dave Stenhouse (1962), Mark Fidrych (1976), Valenzuela (1981) and Hideo Nomo (1995).

In his last start, facing the Twins on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, Gil pitched six one-hit innings against the Twins, and Carlos Correa did say his best pitch was a changeup. At that point Gil’s record was 8-1, his earned run average was 1.82, he had struck out 85 batters in 69 1/3 innings. Against the Twins he was what he has pretty much been against everybody else, which means unhittable.

The Yankees knew what they were getting, obviously, when they signed Cole as a free agent. They have had other young pitchers who showed early speed lately, most notably Luis Severino before he started having injury problems the way Harvey and deGrom did before him at Citi Field, where Severino now pitches for the Mets.

But in so many ways, and even with the Yankees having had a belief in Gil’s promise, there is still the sense this season that we shouldn’t believe what we’re seeing. But you know who believes? Hitters. At least when they can catch up with his stuff.

Gil has already come back from Tommy John surgery. He was traded to the Yankees, by the Twins, in 2018 for Jake Cave. Here is what Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said about Gil the other night:

“You see a lot of good stuff in the game — he’s better than most. … When you have stuff like that and you command the ball pretty well, it’s a nice combination.”

Then Baldelli added, “He’s great.”

You can say that again. And again. Gil has been that good, start after start. By now we’re well past the point where the Yankees can sneak up on anybody, not with that batting order and not the way their starters have performed while waiting for Cole to come back. And we really are well past the point where anybody should be surprised by what Gil is doing. He’s turned himself into as much of a surprise star of the 2024 baseball season as any hitter or pitcher in the game. He’s the kid to watch now in New York.

Gil Day on Sunday at the Stadium.