The New York Yankees hit Kyle Gibson so hard on Tuesday we might have to start debating about torpedo bats again.
Facing the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, New York welcomed veteran starter Kyle Gibson back to the big leagues with three straight homers. Unlike Nestor last month, Gibson can at least say he didn’t allow them on three straight pitches.
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Instead, he allowed them on five, to Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice.
Per MLB, it’s the first time in league history a team has led off a game with three straight homers twice in one season. The Yankees accomplished that before the end of April.
Paul Goldschmidt grounded out on the next at-bat to give Gibson some relief, but then Cody Bellinger came through with a fourth homer in five batters to make it 4-0. It was the second time this season the Yankees had opened a game with four homers in five batters, joining the Cortes violence.
That wasn’t even the end of the damage, as doubles from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe and a single from Oswaldo Cabrera made it 5-0 Yankees. Chisholm’s hit was initially ruled a triple, meaning the Yankees were a ruling from having a four-homer game and a cycle in their first turn through the order.
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Gibson exited the inning with a 45.00 ERA. He was making his season debut because he only signed with Baltimore on March 21 and accepted a minor league assignment because there wasn’t enough time left in spring training to get ready for the season.
With the game already going badly, the Orioles left Gibson out there for the second inning. He allowed another homer to Rice.
It wasn’t all good for the Yankees, though, as Chisholm exited the game with an apparent oblique injury after his hit.
The Yankees’ bats have been incredible this season and the Orioles’ arms have not
The beginning of Tuesday’s game was two teams playing familiar roles. The Yankees now have 14 homers in the first inning this season, giving them more than the Tampa Bay Rays have hit all season (13). Those four homers also pushed them past the Los Angeles Dodgers for the overall MLB lead, with 49.
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New York also entered Tuesday second in MLB in runs scored, behind only the Chicago Cubs, and also leads the league in all three triple-slash numbers, hitting 263/.347/.462 as a team.
Aaron Judge hit his ninth homer of the season off Kyle Gibson. (David Richard-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
And the Orioles, well, this is a team whose rotation outlook was so dire it gave $5.25 million Gibson, in his age-37 season, to help fill out its rotation during spring training. The Orioles were ostensibly a contender entering this season, two years after their breakout 101-win season, and entered Tuesday with the third-worst starting pitcher ERA in baseball (5.62), ahead of only the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies.
Gibson’s performance won’t help that effort. This has been issue for the team all season.
The Yankees entered Tuesday in first place in the AL East with a 17-12 record, while the Orioles sat in the basement at 11-17.