Summoning all the optimism a person can after a 12-1 run loss, the best I could offer in reference to Luis Gil’s disastrous Sunday performance is this: “At least he didn’t walk a boatload of people.”
The Yankees’ starter lined up to face a pretty strong Tigers lineup, and his inability to keep the ball in the yard led to a blowout loss. Even for those who are warned not to take spring results too seriously, this is the type of start that, at the very least, greatly enhances preexisting concerns about
a talented arm, but one whose 2026 projections vary significantly depending on who you talk to.
Gil never got remotely close to a groove, trailing 3-0 by the end of the first inning thanks to a booming three-run shot from Spencer Torkelson after back-to-back singles to Kerry Carpenter and Colt Keith. The second inning was equally difficult, as following a leadoff walk, it was Matt Vierling’s turn to take Gil yard, this time on a cheaper home run that only went 358 feet.
Anxious to fill his quota of one home run per inning right away, Gil wasted no time in the third and left nothing to chance. Riley Greene was due up to lead off the frame, and after a called strike fastball at the top of the zone, Gil poorly located a second heater inside at the perfect height for Greene to thoroughly demolish it. It was the Tigers’ third home run of the game, securing a 7-0 lead quite early.
Somewhat surprisingly, each of the three home runs Gil allowed came on different pitches: Torkelson punishing a changeup that didn’t quite drop enough and Vierling getting ahold of a hanging slider inside. A fastball-reliant pitcher, Gil couldn’t rely on his heater that failed to miss bats (2 whiffs on 19 swings) and induced plenty of hard contact. The slider worked decently well, but the fastball and changeup were absolutely demolished, and even the breaking ball had its lousy moment, the Vierling homer, which, funny enough, didn’t even register as a hard-hit ball.
Perhaps in preparation for his likely role during the regular season, albeit with the caveat of facing a weak lineup once most of the starters had left, Ryan Yarbrough contributed three scoreless, efficient innings, needing only 35 pitches to do so. What was a 7-0 deficit when Gil left the mound got tacked on to 12-0 as the Tigers added five more runs against minor leaguer Zach Messinger in the top of the eighth. The highlight was a grand slam from Jordan Yost, the Tigers’ fourth home run of the day, one that helped Detroit complete the cycle of homers, with a solo shot, two-run homer, three-run blast, and the grand slam.
All that Gil failed to achieve, Framber Valdez had no problems with, pitching the type of game the Tigers brought him in for — even if, in this case, it was just a spring training affair. Reverting back to the pitch distribution he had early in his career with Houston, Valdez leaned into the sinker to frustrate Yankee bats for five scoreless frames with far fewer curveballs than usual.
In typical Valdez fashion, his success was helped along by an innate ability to keep the ball on the ground, where he recorded seven of his 10 outs on balls in play. Shut down by the Tigers starter, the only run the Yankees scored came in the ninth on a Jonathan Ornelas RBI single to avoid the shutout.
The other half of the split-squad Yankees will take the field tonight in Sarasota, as a lineup led by Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ben Rice, and Jasson Domínguez will take on the Orioles at 6:05pm ET. Baltimore will have the broadcast and it’ll be a battle of veteran starters as Paul Blackburn squares off against Zach Eflin. And of course, Aaron Judge will also be in action for Team USA as they face the Dominican Republic in what should be a must-watch World Baseball Classic semifinal. David Bednar, Paul Goldschmidt, and Tim Hill could also appear for the U.S., with Austin Wells, Camilo Doval, and Amed Rosario in play for the D.R. That will start on FS1 at 8pm ET; my colleague Peter will have a game thread available for both since they’ll overlap in play.
