MOOSIC — With the Major League Baseball trade deadline looming Thursday at 6 p.m., the New York Yankees are looking for help for their beleaguered pitching staff.

They are likely to get some from within.

Luis Gil, last year’s American League Rookie of the Year, made his fourth — and most probable final — rehab appearance in the minors, starting for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in a 7-3 loss to the Nashville Sounds on a muggy Tuesday evening at PNC Field.

Earlier Tuesday, during his appearance on the “Talkin’ Yankees” podcast, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said if all went well, Gil would make his long-awaited season debut Sunday at the Miami Marlins.

All seemed to go well.

Gil pitched 4.1 innings, the longest of his four rehab starts; he worked 3.1 innings in each of the first three — two at Double-A Somerset and one with the RailRiders. He allowed one run on three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts, including four in a row at one point. He threw 75 pitches, 50 for strikes. His fastest pitch was 98.4 mph to the penultimate batter he faced, Raynel Delgado, in the top of the fifth. He also threw three 97-plus pitches past Freddy Zamora for a strikeout in the top of the third and a 97.7-mph pitch past Bobby Dalbec for a strikeout in the top of the fourth.

RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan didn’t know if this would be Gil’s last rehab start, but was impressed by his performance.

“He threw well and was pounding the strike zone,” Duncan said. “His fastball had life on it, reached back for some and looked good. His offspeed stuff was good. He made one mistake, but other than that was pretty good. It was fun watching him.”

It also was fun for Rafael Flores to catch him.

“His heater was live as always. Everybody knows he has that electric fastball and it plays well at the top of the zone,” Flores said. “Slider was on today, changeup was on today. He mixed very well and pitched very well today.

“Even in the bullpen, from the jump, you can tell when his heater is going to really be on. It started from the bullpen and transferred over to the game today. It was really awesome to catch.”

Daz Cameron led off the game with a soft single to left off Gil. After Drew Avans flied out to left, Gil picked Cameron off first base, then struck out Tyler Black.

In the Nashville second, he retired Dalbec on a groundout, then hit Oliver Dunn with a pitch before striking out the next two batters, Jared Oliva and Jorge Alfaro. Gil whiffed the first two batters in the top of the third, Raynel Delgado and Zamora, walked Cameron on four pitches, then got Avans again to fly out to left. In the fourth, he got Black to ground out to short before sandwiching strikeouts of Dalbec and Oliva around a two-out single by Dunn.

Gil’s lone mistake came in the top of the fifth when Alfaro hit an 0-2 pitch out to the lawn in right-center field for a home run that broke a scoreless game.

“It was a slider that he just didn’t get off the plate enough,” Duncan said.

After retiring Delgado on the next pitch on a groundout to first with Gil covering, Zamora reached on an error to end Gil’s day. He was relieved by Zach Messinger, who got a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

“That was the design, to get to 75 pitches, and he hit it,” Duncan said.

Last season, Gil was 15-7 for the Yankees with a 3.50 earned-run average. He started 29 games and struck out 171 in 151.2 innings. He has been sidelined since March 24 with a right lat strain.

If Gil returns Sunday, it would be a huge boost for the Yankees rotation.

As for the rest of Tuesday’s game, Nashville used five consecutive one-out hits off Scott Effross in the top of the ninth to score four times and spoil a RailRiders comeback that tied the game at 3. Two of the hits were two-run singles by Zamora and Avans.

Following Alfaro’s home run in the fifth off Gil, the Sounds extended their lead to 3-0 in the sixth off Messinger. Black tripled and scored on a single by Dalbec, who later came around on a two-out RBI single by Alfaro.

Nashville starter Bruce Zimmerman blanked the RailRiders for six innings on four hits, but they broek through against the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh. Consecutive doubles by T.J. Rumfield and Jeimer Candelario greeted reliever Bryan Hudson and made it 3-1. Candelario took third on a groundout by Bryan De La Cruz and scored on a sacrifice fly by Braden Shewmake to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Then with two outs in the eighth against Elvis Peguero, Spencer Jones doubled to the gap in left-center field. The Yankees’ No. 4 prospect played in his first game since his three-homer performance last Thursday in Rochester. He missed the final three games of the series with back spasms.

“I was a little late on the fastball on the first pitch. I wanted to be ready for it the next one,” Jones said. “I got some barrel on it, it felt pretty good, ran hard and made it to second. It was pretty fired up.”

Flores followed with a single to score Jones and tie the game at 3.

“It’s always important to lock in in those crucial moments,” said Flores, the Yankees’ No. 9 prospect who made his home debut after getting promoted from Somerset on July 19. “Jonesie started some momentum and I just tried to carry on and pass the baton to the next guy.”

Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 9:28 PM EDT