BALTIMORE -- The Orioles’ 6-3 loss to the Mariners on Monday night at Camden Yards was the kind of frustrating evening that will leave Trey Gibson yearning to quickly to get back on the mound.
Fortunately for the rookie right-hander, he may finally have that chance.
The No. 4 prospect in the Orioles system allowed three runs across 4 2/3 innings in his fourth career MLB outing, the last two crossing the plate on Josh Naylor’s grand slam off Anthony Nunez to send Baltimore to a third straight loss.
But after being optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk immediately following each of his previous outings, the manner of Gibson’s fourth promotion -- Baltimore’s response to Chris Bassitt landing on the 15-day IL with a back injury -- means that the rookie may get a couple more outings to develop some consistent routines at the Major League level.
“Yeah, for sure, I’m looking forward to that,” the 24-year-old said postgame after an outing that sent his ERA up to 4.24. “But obviously nothing’s set in stone. So we’ll see where we go tomorrow.”
As he has in his three previous outings, Gibson (1-1) did quite a bit right, allowing only five hits and a walk while throwing 45 of his 68 pitches for strikes. His poise even led to a pickoff of Randy Arozarena at first base to wrap up his fourth inning.
But he failed to strike out any Mariners batters, continuing a trend where he hasn’t yet carried his swing-and-miss stuff from Triple-A -- where he’s fanned 38 in as many innings -- into his MLB starts. Up here, he has just five strikeouts in 17 frames.
“I think just getting ahead to two strikes as fast as possible and then letting my pitches eat below the zone,” Gibson said. “I think I gotta do a better job of getting ahead of guys.”
On Monday, he only reached six two-strike counts. And while the Mariners’ aggressive approach made the early innings fly by, it was also responsible for the trouble that developed rapidly in the fifth inning.
Seattle sent five batters up over 10 pitches, tying it at 1-1 on Ryan Bliss’ sacrifice fly, and chasing Gibson when Cole Young’s two-out single put two on with Julio Rodríguez coming up.
“The inning before, he fell behind every single hitter he faced,” O’s manager Craig Albernaz said, explaining why he opted to call in Nunez. “He was giving up some loud contact as well. That inning where they tied the game up, it kept going, got to Julio, and I decided that we needed to stop the game there to give ourselves a chance.”
Nunez entered and walked Rodríguez on five pitches to load the bases, then Naylor turned on his 0-1 fastball on the upper-inside corner, sending it into the arms of a fan leaning over the railing above the out-of-town scoreboard.
“The walk to Julio was the biggest thing that hurt to kind of set up Naylor,” Albernaz said. “I think that's where, with Nunez, he throws strikes. And so it was uncharacteristic of him.”
The Orioles made credible late-rally bids in the seventh and eighth innings, but would score only once in each, hurt twice by successful Mariners replay challenges.
In the seventh, Pete Alonso went up with the bases loaded for a second time of the evening, worked Matt Brash to a full count and appeared to draw an RBI walk. But catcher Jhonny Pereda tapped his helmet, and the ABS system found Brash’s offering had caught the top of the zone.
In the eighth, pinch-hitter Samuel Basallo flied out to deep center for an apparent sacrifice fly. But as Jackson Holliday raced home, Rodríguez threw to second to retire Blaze Alexander attempting to tag up. Then Seattle alertly noticed the tag at second base had come before Holliday tapped home, and used a replay challenge to alert officials in New York.
Afterward, Albernaz said Alexander could’ve read the throw and reversed course with the Mariners leaving first base unmanned.
“Holliday did an outstanding job of running hard through home, that was the first thing I looked at,” Albernaz said. “He tagged up and he didn’t let up running hard through home. So Holliday did an outstanding job on that. It’s just, Blaze just has to read the throw and just get back to first.”