Kyle Gibson talks about his tough start as O's lose road trip opener

SEATTLE – The story of the first game of an important O’s road trip was not hard to put a finger on. Right-hander Kyle Gibson, who had been on a six-start roll, hit a brick wall and that roll was stopped.

As the Seattle Mariners hit three homers off him and extended their winning streak to eight, Gibson and the Orioles got beat 9-2 in Seattle. Their AL East lead is now down to two games over Tampa Bay.

“First game of a long road trip, an important road trip for us. And I just didn’t give the team a chance to win,” said Gibson, who had an ERA of 3.86 in his previous six games with five quality starts.

He pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed 12 hits to tie his career high. Gibson gave up nine runs to set a career high. He had only given up five runs or more four times this year out of 24 games. And for his career, he had never given up more than eight runs in any of his previous 285 career starts.

But a five-run fourth gave Seattle a 7-1 lead and they were on their way to a comfortable win. Gibson allowed a two-run homer in the first to Cal Raleigh, a three-run shot in the fourth to Julio Rodríguez and a solo blast in the fifth by Ty France. Each homer was hit 100 mph+ with Raleigh’s shot having a 112.6 mph exit velocity.

The three homers allowed was a season-high and one off his career highs.

“That’s probably about as bad as I’ve executed pitches in a long time,” Gibson — who fell to 11-7 with an ERA of 4.89 — said. “I had a couple of 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 when I needed to. They had a good plan and I didn’t execute my plan. For five straight innings that’s what happened.”

Just a rough night at the office against a Seattle team he has faced twice now this year, allowing 14 runs to that club over 8 1/3 innings.

“One of the more frustrating ones," he said. "For the most part I’ve avoided the longball for most of the year. Especially multiple in a game. And it is frustrating when you execute good pitches and they hit the ball hard. Normally that means you threw the wrong pitch, and I don’t like throwing the wrong pitch.”

Seattle’s eight-game win streak is its longest since winning 14 in a row from July 2 to July 17, 2022.

The Orioles have lost three of the last four games allowing 28 runs.

This was the seventh time this year they lost by seven or more runs. Gibson’s poor outing also ended a run of 13 straight games where the O’s starting pitcher allowed three or fewer earned runs.

“I just thought he left too many balls in the middle part of the plate,” said manager Brandon Hyde of Gibson. “Left some balls elevated kind of middle. They were really aggressive tonight on him. He was throwing a ton of strikes, just missed locations and they got the barrel to the baseball.

“I just thought he wasn’t at his best. But give him credit for staying out there honestly and I didn’t have to use a bunch of guys out of the bullpen.”

A highlight for Hyde was a second straight good outing with his new team for right-handed reliever Jacob Webb. Acquired on waivers on Monday from the Los Angeles Angels, he pitched a 1-2-3 inning and struck out the side Wednesday in his O’s debut against Houston. Last night he faced four batters and retired them all with two strikeouts.

So he’s thrown 2 1/3 scoreless as an Oriole with five strikeouts. Last night he needed just 14 pitches to get four outs, and got three swings and misses against his changeup.

“He’s showing a good fastball, slider and changeup so far. I actually took him out of the game so I could have him for tomorrow. Because I like what I’m seeing out of him,” said Hyde.

Ryan Mountcastle drew two walks last night – his sixth two-walk game of the year. But he went 0-for-2 as his 12-game hitting streak ended. During that streak he batted .463 with an OPS of 1.291 with four doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs.