The Orioles twice came back from three-run deficits to send Wednesday night’s game to extra innings, but they ran out of gas in the 10th.
After Adam Frazier’s two-run home run in the eighth tied the score, reliever Keegan Akin imploded two innings later, allowing four runs as Baltimore fell, 11-7, to the Cincinnati Reds at Camden Yards.
Three of the first four batters Akin faced in the 10th recorded extra-base hits, as the left-hander continued his recent struggles. Will Benson tripled home the unearned automatic runner, TJ Friedl blasted a two-run homer, and Luke Maile roped a double and later scored on a wild pitch.
Orioles starter Kyle Gibson was tagged for three runs in each of the first two innings for his second straight rough start. The offense backed him up, though, batting around in the bottom half of the first to take a brief 4-3 lead.
The Reds led by three runs again in the eighth, but a two-out rally sparked by Aaron Hicks’ single and Jordan Westburg’s RBI double put Frazier into position for his clutch home run.
Baltimore (48-31) put two runners on in the 10th, but they couldn’t complete a third comeback for its second straight loss to the Reds (43-38). The series loss is just the Orioles’ eighth out of 26 this season, but they’re 4-5-1 over their past 10 sets.
Through his first 15 starts as an Oriole, Gibson was having the bounce-back season the club hoped he would when they gave him $10 million this offseason to lead its rotation.
Whether the first half of his 2023 campaign would classify as that now is up for debate, as the veteran right-hander’s past two starts have been his worst of the year. After allowing five runs in three innings Friday, Gibson was bombarded Wednesday, surrendering six runs — all in the first two frames — in 4 2/3 innings.
Gibson was 8-4 with a 3.94 ERA before this homestand and was Baltimore’s second most consistent starter behind Tyler Wells. The 35-year-old had pitched at least five innings in 14 of 15 starts and allowed more than four runs just once. Over his past two starts, he’s failed to do either, allowing 11 runs — the same number he gave up over his previous five outings — in 7 2/3 innings.
Gibson now owns a 4.66 ERA that is less than half a run off his 5.05 ERA in 2022 and a figure that ranks as the worst among the four main starters in the Orioles’ rotation. Wells leads the group with a 3.21 ERA, followed by Kyle Bradish (3.75), Dean Kremer (4.50) and Gibson (4.66).
Reds star Elly De La Cruz, who is ranked by Baseball America as the No. 1 prospect in the sport, opened the game’s scoring with an RBI single in the first. The 21-year-old had been quiet in his first two games at Camden Yards, entering Wednesday in an 0-for-14 slump. De La Cruz’s debut earlier this month served as the catalyst that catapulted the Reds, one of the National League’s worst teams the previous nine years, atop the NL Central standings. Cincinnati was 27-33 before De La Cruz’s call-up and has been 16-5 since.
Gibson also allowed an RBI hit to Jake Fraley and an RBI groundout to Joey Votto, who hustled down the first base line to beat out a would-be inning-ending double play, in the opening frame.
Ryan O’Hearn put the Orioles on the board with an RBI single to score Cedric Mullins, who led off the game with a single. With the bases loaded, Gunnar Henderson then roped a 106.3 mph triple to left-center field to drive in three runs and give Baltimore a 4-3 lead.
Gibson quickly gave that lead back up in the second, allowing RBI hits to leadoff hitter Friedl and Fraley and a run-scoring groundout to Jonathan India. After Fraley’s single put the Reds up 6-3, Gibson settled down, retiring nine of the next 10 batters he faced before a two-out single in the fifth ended his night. Four of the nine hits he allowed had exit velocities under 85 mph, including a 76.1 mph ground ball single and bloop singles at 66.8 and 72.5 mph.
After the five-hit first, Baltimore’s bats went cold, managing just one hit off starter Luke Weaver and Cincinnati’s bullpen over the next six innings. They woke up in the eighth, though, as Aaron Hicks started the two-out rally with a line drive single to center field, Westburg brought him home with an RBI double and Frazier tied the game with his two-run blast.
This story will be updated.
Twins at Orioles
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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