Trey Gibson’s debut is solid, but Orioles fall apart late in loss to Yankees

NEW YORK — One of the first things a pitcher might notice when he steps onto a Major League Baseball mound for the first time is the third deck of seats behind home plate. Look up from the field and this will all sink in — you’re not in Norfolk anymore, Trey Gibson.

These stadiums are bigger. The lights are brighter. The competition is better. The minor leagues are one thing, and this is another.

But, if Gibson looked at his cleats, he’d see the familiar dirt slope. If he looked straight on, he’d see a catcher 60 feet and 6 inches away. And, while the likes of Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger dug into the batter’s box to face him, he still gripped a baseball, just as he has his whole life.

The 23-year-old Gibson did not seem to allow the eye-widening dimensions of Yankee Stadium or his high-level opponents to rattle him. It was almost the opposite — an at-ease kid taking this all in stride.

“To be honest, leading up to the game, I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be,” Gibson said. “I felt pretty composed with myself.”

When Craig Albernaz came to the mound to take the ball from him with two outs in the fifth inning, Gibson laughed. He appeared to joke with his new manager about getting to face another hitter. But, with a pat on the chest and a slap on his butt, Albernaz sent the rookie to the dugout, a strong debut finished.

What Gibson showed in 4 2/3 innings during the Yankees’ runaway 11-3 win against the Orioles on Sunday was promising. It wasn’t perfect — two hanging curveballs resulted in home runs from Rice and Judge — but Gibson showed mettle. He showed he can hang at this level.

“It was just his demeanor on the mound. He was up for the moment, wasn’t scared,” Albernaz said. “He was approaching it head on just like he normally would any other start.”

After the game, Gibson got to meet with family and friends who made the trip. That was “the best part of the day,” he said.

“Just to be able to say, ‘Thank you,’” Gibson said. “This is definitely a day I’m not ever going to forget.”

The rest of the game, including a seven-run eighth inning for New York, was less pleasant viewing.

After the game, Albernaz admitted the Orioles are at a “crucial point.” They are four games below .500 and playing a poor brand of baseball.

“What team do you want to be?” Albernaz said. “We can fold up and just thinking that everything will turn around just by itself, or we gotta put the work in and really make this happen. I feel with those guys in the clubhouse, it’ll be the latter. These guys have put the work in and moving forward as the season goes on.”

The ending dampened a heartening debut.

With his parents and high school coach at Yankee Stadium, Gibson allowed four hits and three runs. He walked a pair and struck out two. His “death ball” slider, a gyro-type pitch that dives rather than breaking horizontally, earned him his first career strikeout, with Austin Wells unable to hold his swing.

The defense did Gibson no favors, though, and that continued a troubling trend for Baltimore. Third baseman Weston Wilson muffed a grounder from Judge in the first, which allowed the slugger to reach second with one out. Gibson, who had allowed a homer to Rice already in that frame, worked out of danger.

In the second, Ryan McMahon’s double to left field may have been playable for Taylor Ward. Instead, Ward pulled up to play it off the wall, choosing the safer route. And in the third Rice’s bloop down the left field line wasn’t caught by Wilson or Ward. That put a runner on base ahead of Judge, who followed with a home run.

“Like we keep on saying, we can’t give another team [more than] 27 outs, especially the Yankees and their lineup,” Albernaz said. “We got to convert those outs all the time, not just today. We got to do it all the time.”

This has been a constant conversation since spring training. For all the talk of fundamentally sound baseball, it hasn’t transferred to in-game success. It begs the question, can the Orioles achieve significant defensive improvement at this point of the season, if they haven’t already?

“I think so,” Albernaz said. “To me, the defensive side of things, it’s something that you can somewhat control in this game. Whether it be making sure your prepitch is right, making sure you’re engaged, you can’t take a pitch off, all those little things. And just ball security, too, that’s the biggest thing. All these guys have the ability to catch a ball and make a good throw. Right now, it’s us putting the confidence in them and still putting the work in. Yeah, I’m bullish on it, but I think we can make some real improvements.”

Gibson departed in a tie game because the Orioles, sporting a fully right-handed lineup, pressured left-hander Max Fried throughout his outing. They lacked the decisive blow, however, such as when Jeremiah Jackson grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs.

Still, it was a better showing against Fried than Baltimore has managed against some southpaws this season. Blaze Alexander blooped an RBI single in the third — and was thrown out when he stumbled between first and second — and two runs scored in the fourth when Leody Taveras reached on an infield single and Jackson followed with that double play.

Had Baltimore taken advantage of that opportunity, Gibson may have been in line for a win in his debut. Instead, the Yankees retook the lead against left-hander Grant Wolfram in the sixth after Jasson Domínguez doubled and McMahon scored him with an infield single.

Coby Mayo, playing first, snared McMahon’s grounder with a lunging effort. He tried to throw home to nab Domínguez but lost his handle on the ball and couldn’t record an out at first, either.

For a day full of promise — a debut for Baltimore’s top pitching prospect — the familiar issues arose. The defense was again problematic, and a lineup that didn’t include Gunnar Henderson for the first time this season couldn’t make Fried pay for his uncharacteristic shakiness.

Baltimore grounded into three double plays. The Orioles have yet to win a game this season when the opposition starts a left-hander.

“Not the stretch we want, but tomorrow is a new day and I think, for us, that’s how we treat it,” catcher Adley Rutschman said. “It’s a crucial point, and I think our guys are up to the challenge. I know our guys are up to the challenge. And I’ve said it before, but the level of character we have in this clubhouse is very high and with that comes the responsibility to make changes and do what’s necessary in order to turn it around.”

And, although this game was close for a large portion, it fell apart for Baltimore in the eighth. The Yankees built on their lead by scoring seven runs against right-hander Andrew Kittredge. Domínguez clubbed a two-run homer, breaking the dam open. Kittredge allowed four of the next five batters to reach, and the lone out came on a sacrifice fly.

Even after left-hander Dietrich Enns entered, the Yankees kept adding. Another sacrifice fly and a Domínguez double brought home the final two of the frame and ushered in a new low for Baltimore this year.

“We’ve just got to find ways to win games — stop talking about it and start doing it," Kittredge said. “A lot of that is on me today. Throw up a zero today, and we’ve got a chance in the ninth. It’s kind of one of those things where it’s one thing one day, a different thing a different day. We’ve just got to start stepping up and playing better baseball.”

So, even as Gibson gutted through a challenging debut, the Orioles lost their fourth straight game to reach a low-water mark of 15-19. New York has won 11 of its last 12 matchups with Baltimore. And it won’t get easier Monday in the series finale, with right-hander Cam Schlittler on the mound for the Yankees.

This article has been updated.