Luis Gil’s last chance to bolster his case for AL Rookie of the Year doubled as an opportunity to help the Yankees wrap up the AL’s top seed.
The right-hander had a rough day on both fronts.
Gil gave up a career-high four home runs as the Yankees fell to the Pirates 9-4 on a raw, rainy Saturday afternoon in The Bronx.
The Yankees (93-68) were left waiting to see if the Guardians lost on Saturday night, which would secure Aaron Boone’s club home-field advantage through the ALCS, or whether that seeding would come down to the final day of the regular season on Sunday.
Saturday’s loss, which was the Yankees’ fourth in their last five games, also came with some concern as Anthony Rizzo left after getting hit by a pitch on his right hand.
A battle between potential Rookies of the Year lost some fizzle when Gil got hit around and Pirates stud Paul Skenes only went two innings in a planned abbreviated outing.
But Skenes lived up to the hype as the 2023 first-overall pick struck out three across two dominant frames.
Skenes, who lowered his ERA to 1.96 across 23 starts this season, came out firing.
He got Juan Soto looking at a 100 mph fastball on the inside edge before getting Aaron Judge whiffing at a sweeper to end the first inning.
The Yankees did not have a hit until there were two outs in the fifth inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. took rookie Mike Burrows deep for his 24th home run of the year.
But that only cut the deficit to 4-1 as Gil had already given up solo homers to Yasmani Grandal and Nick Gonzales and a two-run shot to Billy Cook.
The Pirates (76-85) then made it 6-1 in the sixth when Jared Triolo belted a 95 mph fastball at the top of the zone for a two-run home run, ending Gil’s day.
Gil entered Saturday having given up just 14 home runs in 146 innings this season before allowing four in his final 5 ⅔ innings of the regular season.
It marked only the second time this year Gil has given up multiple home runs in a game, the other being a two-homer game against the Brewers in April.
Still likely to start a game in the ALDS, Gil finished the regular season with a 3.50 ERA and 171 strikeouts across 151 ⅔ innings.
It was much more than the Yankees could have expected after he missed most of the last two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery, only to become the injury replacement for Gerrit Cole late in spring training this year.
The Yankees threatened to come back in the late innings but could not get over the hump.
After Chisholm struck out to leave the bases loaded in the sixth, Soto ended a rally in the seventh when he was thrown out trying to stretch an RBI single into a double.
Chisholm made it a 6-4 game with an RBI double in the eighth inning but that was as close as the Yankees would get as the Pirates pushed three runs across off Will Warren in the ninth.
The Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the ninth inning, at which point the Pirates called on Aroldis Chapman, but Aaron Judge struck out for the fifth time in five at-bats and Austin Wells flew out to end it.
