They’re three words, tattooed in capital letters across Luis Gil’s throat, and they’re as loud as the screams he unleashes after a big strikeout.

“GOD BLESS ME.”

For Gil, the New York Yankees’ rookie wunderkind, it’s a public message in a peculiar place and with a personal (and blunt) meaning.

For opposing hitters, it’s the last thing they see before he delivers the ferocious fastballs that have put him on a short list of possible starters for the American League at this year’s All-Star Game.

Gil, who takes the mound against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon, is 9-1 in 14 starts this season.

The 26-year-old also leads the AL with a 2.03 ERA and a .142 batting average against. His 96 strikeouts are the sixth-most.

He does it with a heater that averages 96.8 mph — tied for the sixth-fastest in MLB, according to MLB’s Statcast — a low-90s changeup and a slider. It’s come after he was the surprise pick to replace injured ace Gerrit Cole in the rotation out of spring training.

“It starts with the fastball,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s elite. It’s special. He can lean on it. … To see him hunger to get better and learn from everything that he’s gone through, build a really solid routine — that’s what’s been really satisfying about Luis.”

And while keeping the Yankees in first place in the AL East has been his chief concern, his Christian faith will remain his main motivator.

Luis Gil neck tattoo pic.twitter.com/J8auyC6cuL

— Eddie Garcia (@Eddieonfox) May 30, 2024

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The point of the tat is simple.

“It’s just a message for God to protect me,” he said via a translator in Kansas City last week.

He wanted it in a place it would be seen.

“It’s a reminder in asking to be protected,” he said.

How he got there wasn’t so simple.

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Gil said he always felt a greater power in his life.

“I’ve been put in really good situations. … Ever since I could remember, I could see things shaping around me,” he said.

It wasn’t until he was about 15 or 16 years old that he became deeply religious. It was after he signed with the Minnesota Twins. The $90,000 signing bonus he received wasn’t life-changing money, especially relative to the seven-figure deals other teens out of the D.R. were signing at the time.

But the chance to possibly one day pitch in the major leagues? It felt like a blessing.

“From that moment on,” he said, “I developed my strong faith.”

He called religion a “good way to anchor myself into something that could help me through my career and understanding the opportunity I was going to have, something to help me through the journey.” He added that he prays right after he wakes up and just before he goes to sleep.

The tattoo wasn’t Gil’s first, though. His arms and the side of his neck are covered in colored ink. Some of it is religious imagery. He had many of them when he made his MLB debut on Aug. 3, 2021.

But Gil added the neck art in the winter. Yes, it was painful.

“But it was quick,” he said.

He was overcoming shoulder surgery when he was traded at age 19 to the Yankees in exchange for outfielder Jake Cave. In 2022, Gil needed Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the rest of the year and nearly all of 2023. He knew that in 2024 he might get a chance to establish himself in the Bronx.

With the tattoo, he wanted to double down on how he felt in his heart.

“It’s a way to be thankful,” he said.

His teammates love it.

Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman has more tattoos than Gil. He’s covered from his legs all the way to his neck and to the back of his head.

“I love someone who has the confidence to get a neck tat,” Stroman said. “I think a lot of people in society are like, ‘Oh, a neck tat, you can’t get a neck tat.’ But I just feel like that speaks to the confidence in someone because it’s always so frowned upon, I guess, in American society.

“I had those conceptions, too. But once you feel settled and confident with who you are as a person — I’ll tat my whole body. It doesn’t change anything besides outside opinions.”

Left fielder Alex Verdugo is tatted up, too, but he has a limit. He won’t get them on his hands, neck or his face.

“My mom doesn’t like tattoos much,” he said. “She’s already mad enough at the little tattoos that I have. … It takes a lot of confidence to get it on your neck. It’s a spot that I’ve avoided, but it works for him, right? I love it. Maybe I’ll get one on my neck.”

Rookie catcher Austin Wells remembered what he thought the first time he saw Gil’s neck tattoo.

“Probably a little shocked,” he said. “But I think it works for him.”

Wells said he did something similar to Gil. When Wells suffered a cracked rib in spring training 2022, he wasn’t allowed to work out for weeks. He used the downtime to bolster his tattoo collection, putting a Chi Rho — a Catholic marking symbolizing the Holy Trinity — on the inside of his forearm.

On Wednesday, the buzz around Gil’s tattoo had reached a new level. Several Yankees players were wearing the same navy-colored shirt while walking around the clubhouse and during pregame workouts.

The wording on their chests?

“GOD BLESS ME.”

(Photo: Adam Hunger / Getty Images)

It started like any other pickup basketball game at an open gym — players sweating on the court, others waiting on the sidelines and spectators casually observing. Jessica Brogan, who had attended similar practice-like sessions with her two hoops-hungry sons, said it began as a “normal open run.”

However, on this particular Saturday, there was unusual electricity in the air at the Life Time gym in Folsom, Calif., as rumors circulated in the greater Sacramento community that a global basketball star was in town and might swing by. Still, there was reason to doubt it.

“I didn’t even tell my kids about it because I hear that kind of stuff all the time and it doesn’t pan out,” Brogan said.

Others, like Berry Roseborough IV, a basketball trainer in the area who works with college and pro players, were more sure. Roseborough received a call from Marcus Kirkland, who was organizing the session, asking him to recruit his best players because of the expected attendance of this special guest.

On the morning of June 8, Roseborough called his pupils in town without revealing too much, just enough.

“You’ll probably be mad if you miss it,” Damarion Vann-Kelly said Berry told him.

Vann-Kelly had a hunch, one that grew after Kent Bazemore — a G League player who spent 10 seasons in the NBA — walked in. About 10 minutes after Bazemore arrived and with a game underway, the screams began: It’s Curry. It’s Curry.

“All the little kids are screaming,” Vann-Kelly said. “Even the adults were screaming.”

Sure enough, Stephen Curry, wearing a light gray hoodie pulled over his head, walked in.

“I look up while we’re playing and I’m like — excuse my language — but, ‘Oh s—, Steph just walked through the doors,’ ” Roseborough said. “And you could feel it. … You feel all the energy in the gym radiating. Everybody’s almost in shock.”

Brogan looked at her sons’ faces. Braxton, 13, turned red when he noticed the four-time NBA champion, and Easton, 10, grew wide-eyed and broke into an ear-to-ear smile when he realized it was Curry stretching nearby, she said.

It’s not unheard of for NBA players to join amateur pickup games as a way for them to stay tuned up, especially during the league’s offseason. Players with college and pro experience, including Bazemore, regularly attend the runs Kirkland organizes in the Sacramento area. The two met at a gym in 2022 and stayed in touch, according to Kirkland, bonding over a shared love of basketball and a desire to pass that love on to others in their community.

Bazemore encouraged Curry, who was in the area for his daughter’s youth volleyball tournament, to drop by the gym, Kirkland said. Curry, whose NBA season ended in April with the Warriors’ Play-In Tournament loss to the Sacramento Kings, will make his Olympic debut at the Paris Games next month as the United States men go for their fifth straight gold medal.

“We’ve had a lot of (NBA players) come to our runs but never anyone of the caliber of Stephen Curry,” Roseborough said. “That was like ‘Wow.’ ”

Brogan called it a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” for her family.

During a roughly two-hour session, Curry put on a masterclass. He and Bazemore teamed up, playing five-on-five against Kirkland, Vann-Kelly, Roseborough and others. Brogan and her sons watched in awe along with a growing crowd that became so large that security asked people to leave, she said.

Naturally, Curry delivered. Roseborough said he noticed Curry’s pace and how simple his game is.

“He didn’t do anything more than he needed to do in that moment,” Roseborough said. “His pickups — basically how you pick up the ball before you get into your shot — they were just so fast like you couldn’t even see them.

“Then his release. He’s getting his shot off in, had to have been, .3 seconds or less. It doesn’t matter if it’s contested. It looks the same every time. It’s coming off the same finger every time.”

Added Vann-Kelly, 17, a 6-foot-5 guard with Division I and pro aspirations and a recent graduate of Monterey Trail High: “He was making all of them. It was nothing but net. How (Curry) attacks, you can just tell why he’s at the pro level. All his moves are perfected. He has great patience, great skill overall.”

During one game, after Curry crossed up Kirkland for a step-back 3-pointer that rimmed out, Curry got the ball back off a pass and then made the game-winning 3 on his next attempt. He reflexively celebrated with his iconic “night night” gesture. A clip of the moment, shot by Brogan and posted to her Instagram, went viral.

Steph Curry hits the Night Night at an open run in Sacramento 😴😂🔥

(via jessicabrogan/ig) pic.twitter.com/kIPOodso1P

— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) June 9, 2024

“He’s a generational player, his IQ,” Kirkland said. “He’s just different.”

But it wasn’t only Curry’s viral shots and elite ballhandling that left the gym buzzing. He impressed in another sense, according to those who were there. They noted how Curry introduced himself to each player and shook their hands. He asked for their names and told them not to be nervous.

“Guys were trying to give him the ball so he could do all the scoring and he was telling them, like, ‘No, we play team basketball. We’re not gonna play like that,’ ” Roseborough said. “He was actually setting up other guys to score. He was giving confidence to the players and other people that were there.”

After a series of eight or nine games — largely dominated by Curry and Bazemore, Kirkland said — the two took photos with the other players and the kids Kirkland invited to watch, including Brogan’s sons.

“He just made everybody around the building feel good,” Roseborough said. “He made everybody that was in there feel comfortable. And that was crazy to me, just how his energy really affected everybody in the building that much.”

(Top photo of Steph Curry and Kent Bazemore with other players: Courtesy of Marcus Kirkland)

Follow live coverage of Netherlands vs France, Slovakia vs Ukraine and Poland vs Austria at Euro 2024 today

Kylian Mbappe will wear a mask when he returns to play at Euro 2024.

The France captain, 25, fractured his nose in their first game of the tournament.

He avoided surgery but following medical assessment it has been determined he must wear protective equipment to safely return to the field.

The Real Madrid striker was pictured in a mask with the French national colours of red, white and blue — the tricolore — and the French Football Federation (FFF) logo on it during training on Thursday.

France play Netherlands in the second game of Group D on Friday.

Des idées de masques 🎭😅 ?

— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) June 17, 2024

What happened to Mbappe?

Mbappe fractured his nose in France’s opening game of their tournament, against Austria on Monday.

He sustained the injury in an aerial collision with Austria defender Kevin Danso with blood seen coming from his face and on his playing shirt.

Mbappe received medical treatment before leaving in the closing stages of the game in Dusseldorf, being replaced by Olivier Giroud.

What are UEFA’s rules on masks?

UEFA has very specific rules on clothing and other equipment worn while playing.

It reads: “Medical equipment (e.g. head protection, face-masks, casts, kneepads or knee braces, elbow pads): Medical equipment worn on the field of play must be a single colour and free of team and manufacturer identification.

“Items worn on legs and arms should be the same colour as the corresponding playing attire item (e.g. elbow pads or tape used on the arm the same colour as shirt sleeves and kneepads the same colour as shorts).”

Any equipment has to be approved by UEFA so it is not possible for Mbappe to take the field wearing a mask that does not adhere to those regulations. The FFF will need to ask UEFA and clear whatever mask he chooses to wear.

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The night Kylian Mbappe broke his nose at Euro 2024 – ‘Any ideas for masks?’

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What mask will Mbappe wear then?

Mbappe has a number of masks prepared, all of a single colour, which will work inside UEFA’s regulations, the FFF has confirmed to The Athletic.

The FFF knew of the guidance that must be followed before getting the masks made. He also has different sizes prepared.

Kylian Mbappe is wearing a red, white and blue mask in #LesBleus training @TheAthleticFC pic.twitter.com/dBsNlBQs5D

— Charlotte Harpur (@charlotteharpur) June 20, 2024

Will Mbappe play against Netherlands?

On Wednesday, Mbappe teased the prospect of him taking part in France’s second game of the group stage with a cryptic message on social message.

“Without risks, there are no victories,” he wrote on Instagram, sparking speculation he would be available.

“Everything’s going in the right direction,” Didier Deschamps then said at his news conference on Thursday.

“After this major shock that he’s had, with the consequences of course. “Yesterday, as you saw, he was able to go out and do a bit of activity. And that’ll be the case tonight too.

“So things are moving in the right direction so that he can be available tomorrow. We’ll make sure he’s available, I repeat.”

UEFA regulations require teams to confirm their teams at least an hour before kick-off of each game.

France face Netherlands at 8pm BST (3pm ET) in Leipzig on Friday.

A win will see them progress to the next phase of the tournament. They then play Poland in their final group game in Dortmund on Tuesday.

GO DEEPER

France’s altered defensive shape worked against Austria – but game state a crucial factor

(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)