Luis Gil played with fire and lived to tell about it Wednesday night in the first game of a doubleheader.
Will Warren played with fire and got lit up in the nightcap.
That’s how the Yankees split the twinbill, capturing a 5-2 win in Game 1 behind five shutout innings from Gil before the Angels tagged Warren to take Game 2, 8-2, on a rainy and cool day in The Bronx.
After a long and soggy day of baseball — much of it a slog — the Yankees (68-47) ended the night tied with the Orioles atop the AL East.
Warren had turned in a solid MLB debut last week against the Phillies and then got called back up on Wednesday as the 27th man for the doubleheader following Tuesday’s washout.
But in his first time pitching at Yankee Stadium, Warren got rocked by the Angels (50-64) for eight runs on eight hits and three walks across 4 ⅓ innings.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto was responsible for most of the damage, crushing a grand slam to cap off a six-run second inning and then drilling a two-run double in the fourth.
Neto had also belted a two-run homer off reliever Jake Cousins in Game 1, the only two runs the Angels scored in the opener.
Warren nearly made it out of the second inning with only one run crossing the plate.
He loaded the bases after giving up a run before striking out back-to-back hitters as the Angels’ lineup flipped over.
But then he issued a four-pitch walk to leadoff man Nolan Schanuel to force in another run, with Neto following with his grand slam.
DJ LeMahieu was in the middle of both of the Yankees’ runs — driving in one on a single and then scoring the other after doubling — but that was all they could muster in the nightcap.