Kyle Gibson, bullpen hit hard as Orioles fall to Mariners, 13-1, in most lopsided loss of season

Kyle Gibson walked off the mound after Friday’s third inning at Camden Yards at a time when, on an average night, might have been when the game was ending.

Instead, between a rain delay and Gibson’s lengthy innings, the Orioles’ 13-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners was still in its early stages as the clock approached 10 p.m. After a one hour and 40-minute delay, Gibson required 82 pitches to get through three frames, surrendering five runs in the shortest start of his Orioles career before a disastrous bullpen effort concluded with infielder Josh Lester pitching the ninth.

The 12-run margin surpassed a 12-2 loss to the Texas Rangers on May 26 as Baltimore’s worst defeat this season. Both blowouts came with the Orioles (45-29) wearing their City Connect uniforms.

“That was pretty ugly,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Not our night.”

Gibson needed at least 34 pitches in both the second and third innings, leaving the bases loaded while allowing a run in the second before giving up four in the next. The first six hits the veteran right-hander allowed were singles, but all but one was struck 100 mph or harder, as was a home run that broke the game open.

Two of those knocks bookended a strikeout to open the second — with the latter getting past second baseman Adam Frazier on a potential inning-ending double play — before Tom Murphy lofted a sacrifice fly to center. Another single and walk followed, but Gibson struck out reigning American League Rookie of the Year Julio Rodríguez for the second time to leave the bases full.

He was unable to minimize damage the next inning. After a leadoff walk, two of the next three batters singled before another sacrifice fly. Murphy then sent a sinker over the left field wall for a two-run home run.

“I had a couple chances to make a pitch and get out of both those innings, and I just didn’t do it,” Gibson said.

Gibson said he offered Hyde to go back out fourth, but his night ended after those three innings. In 16 starts for the Orioles after signing a one-year contract this offseason, Gibson has a 4.30 ERA while averaging 5.75 innings per outing. Friday’s start was only his second in which he failed to complete five innings and ended a six-start streak of pitching into the sixth. Baltimore’s starters hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in 12 straight games and 21 of the previous 22.

“He just had two really, really long innings,” Hyde said. “Just things weren’t going right. It just wasn’t our night tonight.”

Even a sharper outing from Gibson might not have been enough. Through six innings, Mariners starter Logan Gilbert allowed one hit, a second-inning single by AL batting average leader Austin Hays, with Teoscar Hernández’s fourth-inning home run off Logan Gillaspie giving Seattle (37-37) a 6-0 lead. Baltimore’s first and only run came in the seventh, when Anthony Santander took Gilbert deep for his team-best 12th home run. The solo shot followed two scoreless innings from left-hander Cionel Pérez, which Hyde called “one bright spot tonight.”

The late output was rendered moot when Seattle scored seven runs in the eighth off left-hander Keegan Akin, at one point recording five straight singles. The outing took Akin’s ERA from 4.22 to 6.95.

Lester, a rookie who has played first, third and right field for the Orioles, pitched a scoreless ninth. He allowed a leadoff double to Murphy off the left field wall. After a flyout, Lester struck out Jarred Kelenic looking on a 62 mph pitch, and after a walk, he induced a popup to end the inning.

“You’re gonna lose 70 to 80 games depending on how well you play,” Gibson said. “It’s just one of those games. It’s one of those weird ones where a couple big innings kind of did us in, and you’ve got to be able to flush it and not let one loss turn into two.”

Around the horn

• After designating right-hander Spenser Watkins for assignment earlier this week, the Orioles traded him to the Houston Astros for cash Friday. Watkins, 30, had a 5.85 ERA in 39 outings (30 starts) across 2021 and 2022 and did not pitch for Baltimore in two brief stints in the majors this year.
• Before Friday’s game, Hyde had little news on the four Orioles on rehabilitation assignments with Triple-A Norfolk. He said the team is “encouraged” by how outfielder Cedric Mullins (right groin strain) and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle (vertigo) are feeling and is “re-evaluating” right-hander Dillon Tate (right elbow flexor strain). Right-hander Mychal Givens (right shoulder fatigue) will have his next rehab outing Sunday.
• With those players present, the Tides clinched the International League first-half title Wednesday, guaranteeing a spot in the Triple-A postseason.
• Longtime Orioles outfielder Adam Jones will be among the participants at the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game on July 8 at the Seattle Mariners’ T-Mobile Park. Jones, who played for Baltimore from 2008 to 2018, spent the first two seasons of his career with the Mariners. Former Mariners ace Félix Hernández, who spent spring training with the Orioles in 2021, is also among those involved.

Mariners at Orioles

Saturday, 4:05 p.m.

TV: MASN

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

()