Luis Gil (four home runs), Yankees hammered by Pirates

Luis Gil failed to close the deal.

Both when it came to making a persuasive final argument for being part of the Yankees Division Series rotation and allowing his team to clinch homefield advantage in the American League playoffs.

Instead, Gil allowed a season-high four home runs Saturday in a 9-4 loss to the Pirates in front of a sellout crowd of 46,069 at the Stadium that sat through a chilly mist throughout.

The Yankees (93-68) came into the day with a magic number of one to clinch homefield and could have still done it with a Cleveland loss Saturday night at home to the Astros.

Trailing 9-4 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out. The Pirates brought on Aroldis Chapman — booed loudly by the crowd, many, no doubt remembering some of his past postseason failures as a Yankee, as he came in from the bullpen — to face Aaron Judge.

Judge, off on Friday, came into the day with 58 homer runs and having homered in five straight games.

Judge got ahead 3-and-1 before striking out swinging on a full-count, 100-mph fastball. Austin Wells lined to left to end it.

There was an injury scare for the Yankees, too, as Anthony Rizzo, hit by a pitch by a slider in the seventh inning, left the game in the eighth. There was no immediate word on his condition.

As for Gil, who will very much be in the discussion for AL Rookie of the Year (along with Wells, one of his teammates), was not good in his final tuneup before the playoffs.

The 26-year-old allowed six runs, six hits and a walk in falling to 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA. Gil struck out five.

With Gerrit Cole a lock to start Game 1 of the ALDS against an opponent yet to be determined next Saturday in the Bronx and Carlos Rodon all but certain to start Game 2, it will be between Gil and Clarke Schmidt when it comes to the third member of the rotation for the best-of-five series. Schmidt, scheduled to start Sunday afternoon, is 5-5 with a 2.55 ERA in 15 starts (Schmidt missed three months of the season with a lat strain). Nestor Cortes was a longshot consideration but was put on the IL mid-week with a left flexor strain and Marcus Stroman already had been shifted to the bullpen (though the righthander started in Cortes’ place on Wednesday).

“Really feel good about the decision we have in front of us because I feel like whatever way we go, I feel like we’ll be running out a good starter,” Aaron Boone said before the game. “Hopefully, if we continue to move on (to the best-of-seven ALCS), more (starters) come into play beyond that. So where they’re at right now matters too (in the decision) and how they’re throwing the ball, and ultimately who we think gives us the best chance, as well as what’s the best fit roster wise in setting us up as a whole staff in that first round.”

Gil’s afternoon started promisingly.

He struck out Pirates leadoff man Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a former Yankee, on four pitches to start the afternoon, the final one a 95-mph fastball. The switch-hitting Bryan Reynolds slashed a single to left but Gil struck out Oneil Cruz swinging at a slider and got Nick Gonzalez to line to Jasson Dominguez in left to end the 20-pitch inning.

Pirates righthander Paul Skenes, the first overall pick of the 2023 draft who started this year’s All-Star Game for the National League and the front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year, unsurprisingly came out throwing heat, getting Dominguez to ground to second before striking out Juan Soto looking at a 99-mph fastball and Judge swinging at a sweeper to end the 14-pitch bottom half.

Gil retired the first two batters of the second but left a first-pitch, 95-mph fastball middle up that Yasmani Grandal hooked just inside the foul pole down the rightfield line, his ninth homer making it 1-0.

Skenes got Wells to foul out on a first-pitch, 99-mph fastball, then shattered Giancarlo Stanton’s bat with a 1-and-1 99-mph fastball the DH trickled back to the mound for the second out. Jazz Chisholm Jr. went down looking at a 100-mph fastball that tailed back in to catch the inner part of the plate for the third out.

With the Pirates watching the 23-year-old’s end-of-season workload carefully, Skenes was pulled after two innings and 23 pitches (17 strikes).

After righty Mike Burrows, making his big-league debut, made quick work of the Yankees in the bottom of the third — setting them down in order on 15 pitches — Nick Gonzalez bumped the Pirates lead to 2-0 with one out in the fourth, roping a first-pitch slider to left for his seventh homer of the season.

The Yankees got their first base runner of the day with one out in the bottom of the fourth when Soto worked a walk. Judge struck out swinging and, with Wells up, Soto tried to advance on a ball in the dirt and was thrown out at second to end the inning.

Pittsburgh tagged Gil again in the fifth. Grandal led off with a single and, after Nick Yorke lined out to left, Billy Cook sent a 2-and-2 changeup to left, his third homer making it 4-0.

Chisholm got the Yankees on the board in the bottom half, ripping a first-pitch curveball 406 feet into the second deck in right, his 24th homer making it 4-1.

Jared Triolo’s two-run shot in the sixth off Gill made it 6-1.

The Yankees added an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 6-2, Soto’s RBI single (he was thrown out to trying to stretch) in the seventh made it 6-3 and Chisholm’s RBI double in the eighth made it 6-4.

Will Warren, one of the club’s top pitching prospects brought up from the minors earlier in the day, allowed three runs in the ninth that made it 9-4.