BALTIMORE- What happened? The Orioles hoped that Kyle Gibson could give them an effective start in his first appearance. Instead, Gibson allowed three home runs in five pitches, and four home runs to the first five New York Yankees’ hitters.
By the time, Gibson’s night was finished, he allowed nine runs on 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings, and the Orioles suffered another humiliating defeat, 15-3, before 22,164 at Camden Yards on Tuesday night.
The Orioles (11-18) hoped to build on their exciting 4-3 win on Monday night, but Gibson, who signed on March 21st, immediately put them in a hole.
Trent Grisham homered on Gibson’s second pitch. Aaron Judge hit the next pitch for his ninth home run, and two pitches later, Ben Rice hit his seventh home run.
After Paul Goldschmidt grounded to short, Cody Bellinger homered. Anthony Volpe’s RBI double gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead.
Rice homered again in the second, and after RBI singles by Goldschmidt and Oswaldo Peraza, the Orioles trailed, 9-0, and Gibson was done.
The nine runs allowed equaled a career high. The five home runs allowed were a first.
“Not many times have I done that in the first inning,” Gibson said. “I’ve had a couple instances where teams jump you like that. I think four homers on four different pitches, and then a homer on a different pitch the next inning. So, just a weird instance where some of them we bad location. A couple of them weren’t.”
Matt Bowman allowed three runs in the fifth, and manager Brandon Hyde called on Charlie Morton, who would have finished 2 1/3 innings unscathed had shortstop Gunnar Henderson not dropped Volpe’s line drive, allowing a run to score.
Carlos Rodón, who pitched in the game without fans exactly 10 years ago, retired the first 15 Orioles before he walked Emmanuel Rivera to start the sixth. After Jorge Mateo’s double and Dylan Carlson’s groundout, the Orioles avoided a shutout.
Henderson homered to begin the seventh.
Ryan Mountcastle, who was hitless in three at-bats and is 0-for-18 and 2-for-34, drove in a run with sacrifice fly in the ninth.
“I’ve had struggles before, so has everybody else,” Mountcastle said. “Just going to keep taking it day by day and try and get better each and every day.”
Maverick Handley made his major league debut, relieving Adley Rutschman in the sixth. He struck out twice.
How difficult a night was it for Gibson? Gibson will get his second start, probably a week from now in Minnesota.
“I’ll go back and look at it and try to see if I was doing something or getting in a pattern,” he said. “But yeah, physically, I felt good, and that’s kind of the frustrating thing — when you feel good physically and the results don’t show that. Can’t even find a way to get into the fifth, right? I thought I had found kind of a rhythm in the second and third, other than that one swing, and the walks kind of led to a longer inning. Obviously not how I wanted the first one to go.”
It didn’t take long for Hyde to realize it wasn’t Gibson’s night.
“He gave up four homers in the first inning,” Hyde said. “That’s kind of a telling sign. But at that point I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to get through the game. Hopefully, he settles down a little bit and gives us some innings. It’s his first start. It’s not an easy assignment. He got into the fifth [fourth], but Gibby will get better as he gets more comfortable. This is his first major league start this year.”
The 37-year-old right-hander Gibson remains confident in the Orioles, a team he helped win 101 games in 2023.
“This is a team that has so many good players, just good pitching, it’s a good team,” Gibson said. “And I know, obviously, maybe we haven’t played our best baseball, but good teams have bad months all the time. And the hard part to do now is not sit here and think you’ve got to get it all back in 10 games, and by May 15th, try to be five games over .500.
“That’s a tough mental battle to fight. I think the best thing you can do is look at tomorrow and see if you can finish the calendar by winning a series, and win a series in May. You can’t just do it 10 games at a time. You’ve got to do it one at a time. And two or three at a time, and start knocking off some series.
“And before you know it, by the end of May, you can be four or five games over .500 and you’re feeling really good. Just like good teams can have bad months, they can have really good ones, too. And you look back, you look at the growth you can have in the month of March and the month of April, and maybe look back in the month of September and realize this is what helped you fight through some of the dog days.”
What does it mean? Gibson didn’t have a spring training, and he pitched three minor league games, but he’ll need to pitch five or so games before any conclusions can be drawn.
What’s the word? “You’ve got to kind of process it, figure out if they were all just bad execution or the wrong pitch, and try to go get outs the next inning. You can’t change what happened, and definitely, if you sit there and worry about what’s happened, more bad things are going to go wrong.”-
What’s the stat of the day? The five home runs Gibson allowed were a career high and tied the Orioles’ club record. The last starter to allow five homers was Bruce Zimmermann on May 29th, 2022.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? In his first start for Triple-A Norfolk, Trevor Rogers allowed four runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings in the Tides’ 6-1 loss to Charlotte. Rogers, who is rehabbing a right knee injury, walked three and struck out two, throwing 55 pitches.
The Tides were held to three hits.
Braxton Bragg allowed six runs, four unearned, on six hits in five innings as Double-A Chesapeake lost to Hartford, 7-4.
High-A Aberdeen starter Michael Forret was removed from the IronBirds’ 16-7 loss to Bowling Green with low back discomfort. Second baseman Griff O’Ferrall homered and had three RBIs.
Catcher David Bañuelos was hitless in three at-bats in the first game of his rehab assignment. Left-hander Walker Pennington, who was claimed off waivers from Texas on Monday, was assigned to Aberdeen.
Chase Allsup allowed five runs, four earned on four hits in 3 1/3 innings as Single-A Delmarva lost to Fayetteville, 6-4. Centerfielder Braylin Tavera hit a three-run home run. The Shorebirds are 5-17.
Infielder TT Bowens was transferred from Chesapeake to Norfolk. Right-hander Peter Van Loon was moved from Norfolk to Chesapeake. Right-hander Juan De Los Santos went from Aberdeen to Chesapeake.
What’s next? Cade Povich (1-2, 5.04) will start against Carlos Carrasco (2-1, 5.26) on Wednesday night at 6:35.
Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com