Stats show Yankees' Luis Gil dominating Red Sox was almost unfathomable

I refuse to acknowledge it until the final ball is in the glove at the tail end of Game 162. Won't do it. Can't do it. Absolutely not going to happen. But, if there was ever going to be solid evidence that the Boston Red Sox's lineup is actually bad in 2026, it would've come in the form of Luis Gil's start on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

Yes, Fenway Park. The vintage ballyard with a right-field foul pole you can poke with an off-balance looper, shorter than the short porch. The stadium with a gigundous wall that eats doubles in left. When a well-struck ball thunks it, the reverberating sound will haunt you from home — so imagine what it can do to a pitcher. No lead is safe here. No lead will ever be safe here.

Except, on Tuesday, Luis Gil — the worst member of the Yankees' rotation by a country mile — had just about the safest start you could possibly imagine, two days before Red Sox fans plan to threaten Cam Schlittler's safety from the bullpen (really funny stuff, though).

Before he exited having walked two men in a row with one out in the seventh, he'd just completed a four-pitch inning in the sixth. Gil's sweat factor was near-zero. The Yankees bullpen — shoutout Brent Headrick — bailed him out to preserve the shutout in his final inning, and Tim Hill and David Bednar followed suit, getting this puppy to the finish line.

So, was Gil that good? Were the Sox that bad? Based on the metrics of his pitches, it ... certainly seems like a hefty chunk of the latter.

Would he have shut out any other team in baseball with that level of stuff last night? At their home?

Yankees' Luis Gil bullpen decision still impossible to parse after "dominance" at Fenway

Can we call this dominance? We have to. But it feels wrong.

Nothing about Gil sacrificing velocity on both his fastball and breaking stuff to harness his command feels like it'll "play up in a bullpen role". If/when Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole return — both have rehab starts scheduled in Hudson Valley to end the week — the Yankees are going to have to make a serious decision. Gil to the bullpen, while Ryan Yarborugh, Brent Headrick, or Paul Blackburn get DFA'd or demoted? Or Gil to Triple-A while the Yankees continue to tinker with him?

Gil plowing through the Red Sox — he has an 0.80 ERA against them in 33 2/3 frames over six career starts! — won't provide enough evidence in either direction of whether his new "pitch to contact" mode can be effective across the league. Gil's magic against Boston, plus the current construction of their lineup, didn't exactly give anyone the data they needed.

For now? Pocket the win, and hope whatever's ailing Boston continues to do so.

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