On a day when their sluggers still made their presence felt, it was Luis Gil who made the biggest impression for the Yankees in a 5-0 win over Seattle.
The right-hander gave up just one hit — an infield single in the fourth by J.P. Crawford that was mishandled by Anthony Volpe — over 6 ⅓ shutout innings.
It was the latest terrific outing by the 25-year-old, who set a franchise rookie record with 14 strikeouts in his previous outing.
And Gil, who retired the first nine batters he faced Thursday in The Bronx, continued a record-setting stretch by the Yankees’ rotation.
They’ve now gone 11 straight games of having their starter pitch at least five innings while allowing two or fewer runs, something that hadn’t been done in franchise history.
And perhaps none of the five starters have been a more pleasant surprise than Gil, who only earned a spot in the rotation because of the elbow injury that sidelined ace Gerrit Cole during the spring.
In his first full season back following 2022 Tommy John surgery, Gil has a 2.11 ERA and has given up more than five hits just once in his 10 outings.
Prior to the game, Aaron Boone said the team hasn’t yet formulated a plan of what to do if all five starters are still healthy when Cole returns, which could be as soon as late next month.
The manager added there is no predetermined innings limit on Gil, who has never pitched more than 108 innings in a season.
With Gil dealing again, the offense got yet another jolt from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who both homered.
Stanton gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead when he opened the bottom of the second with a mammoth 445-foot homer to dead center.
It was Stanton’s 12th homer of the season and fourth in his last nine games.
Judge went deep the next inning to right-center, his 15th of the year and sixth in 11 games.
The Yankees loaded the bases against Castillo in the fifth on walks by Juan Soto and Judge and an infield single by Alex Verdugo.
But Stanton and Anthony Rizzo both struck out to keep it a two-run game.
Gil found himself in trouble for the first time in the sixth. After the leadoff walk to France and back-to-back strikeouts, Gil walked Ty France.
Following a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Gil got Luke Raley to end the 31-pitch inning.
Gil was pulled one out into the seventh inning, having allowed just the one hit over his 96-pitch outing.
Volpe opened the bottom of the seventh with a double to left and stole third before Soto singled through the drawn-in infield.
Verdugo and Rizzo followed with a pair of sacrifice flies to make it 5-0.
Victor Gonzalez and Nick Burdi loaded the bases in the eighth before Clay Holmes got out of the jam and finished the game in his first outing since giving up his first earned runs of the season in his previous outing.
The win was the Yankees’ ninth in their last 11 games, as they got back to a season-high 18 games over .500.
It was a solid way for the Yankees to close out a homestand before a nine-game West Coast trip that begins Friday in San Diego.