Kyle Gibson didn’t have it.
The veteran right-hander allowed a career-high nine earned runs as the Orioles opened a series at T-Mobile Park with a 9-2 defeat Friday night, the Seattle Mariners’ eighth straight victory. Gibson, who entered as the American League leader in hits allowed, surrendered 12 in 5 1/3 innings.
“That’s probably about as bad as I’ve executed pitches in a long time,” Gibson said. “I had a couple innings there where I felt a little bit better and in rhythm, but in general, just didn’t do very much well. Didn’t make pitches when I needed to. Didn’t limit damage. Didn’t execute some sliders in instances where I needed to. I think they had a good plan, and I didn’t execute my plan.”
Gibson’s night began with a spectacular play behind him from Cedric Mullins, who robbed Julio Rodríguez of extra bases in his first opportunity in center field after being activated from the injured list before Friday’s game. But little else went Gibson’s way. A single followed before Cal Raleigh homered on a fastball in the middle of the zone.
Gibson avoided further damage in the second and third innings before the Mariners (63-52) broke the game open in the fourth. Three straight singles loaded the bases before a sacrifice fly and RBI single spoiled Gibson’s streak of four straight quality starts. Rodríguez then broke the game open with a three-run home run.
Despite having allowed a season-high seven runs, Gibson needed only 69 pitches through four innings, prompting manager Brandon Hyde to send him back out for the fifth. In that inning, he allowed another home run to Ty France in an otherwise crisp 11-pitch frame. The game marked only the second time this year Gibson gave up multiple home runs in a start, joining a two-homer game in his second outing of the season April 4. He entered the day ranked fifth among qualified pitchers in home runs allowed per inning.
“I just thought he left too many balls in the middle part of the plate,” Hyde said. “It looked like they got some balls elevated kind of in the middle, and they were really aggressive tonight on him. Throwing a ton of strikes and just maybe some missed locations and they got the barrel of the [bat] on it.”
Pitching into the sixth for the eighth straight start, Gibson departed after consecutive doubles with one out in the inning, the first falling on a miscommunication between left fielder Colton Cowser and third baseman Ramón Urías. That left him as the first Oriole to allow nine earned runs in a game since Aaron Brooks on Aug. 10, 2019, in a 23-2 loss to the Houston Astros.
“He just wasn’t his best, but I give him credit for staying out there, honestly, and saving a bunch of guys that I did not have to use out of the bullpen,” Hyde said. “If we catch that ball in left, he might be going back out there for the seventh, also.”
Gibson’s rough outing came six days after he earned his 100th career win and two days after he reached 10 years of major league service time. He has a 5.86 ERA in 13 starts since the start of June.
Jacob Webb replaced Gibson and struck out the next two batters after striking out the side in his first appearance with Baltimore. He recorded two more outs, both on balls in play, before Nick Vespi worked a scoreless 1 1/3 innings after being called up from Triple-A Norfolk before the game.
Before Jordan Westburg’s RBI single in the ninth, Anthony Santander’s fourth-inning solo shot represented all of the offense for Baltimore (71-45), which saw its lead in the AL East drop to two games.
“Normally, you can have some kind of silver lining that you look at. Tonight was just a frustrating start,” said Gibson, who allowed five earned runs in three inning in his previous start against Seattle on July 23. “First game on a long road trip, on an important road trip for us, and I just didn’t even give the team a chance to win and be competitive tonight.”
Orioles at Mariners
Saturday, 9:40 p.m.
TV: MASN2, FS1
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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