BALTIMORE — Kyle Gibson, signed out of desperation by the Baltimore Orioles, could not have asked for worse conditions to make his season debut: An 83-degree night at Camden Yards and the New York Yankees licking their chops.
And it took less than 10 minutes for the Bronx Bombers to welcome him back in the rudest fashion.
The Yankees led off the game with three consecutive home runs on the first five pitches of the game, added a fourth one out later and torched Gibson for seven hits and five runs before the Orioles even had a chance to bat.
The Yankees became the first team in major league history to twice in a season lead off a game with three consecutive home runs, repeating the feat first accomplished March 29 at Yankee Stadium against Milwaukee.
Nine innings later, the Yankees deposited six home runs over fences and onto flag courts and even Eutaw Street beyond right field, and recorded a 15-3 victory over the Orioles.
Gibson, 37, was summoned after a spate of spring training and early-season injuries and the poor performance of Charlie Morton to patchwork the worst rotation, by ERA, in the major leagues.
Yet the Yankees needed no time to flex on him and grab a 5-0 lead before fans settled in at Camden Yards.
Trent Grisham, a 412-foot bomb onto Eutaw Street, on the game’s second pitch.
Aaron Judge, his team-leading ninth home run, 364 feet the opposite way.
Ben Rice, a changeup he quickly dispatched 378 feet to right.
After a Paul Goldschmidt groundout, Cody Bellinger crushed another Gibson offering to right field for a 4-0 lead. They plated another run on consecutive doubles by Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe.
“It really starts with Grish,” says Judge. “He set the tone for us early on. When he goes up there and takes a tough pitch and sends one to Eutaw Street, it’s pretty impressive and gets you going. You go up and think, ‘I gotta do my job.’ It takes a little weight off everybody’s shoulders when Grish does that.”
Grisham tied Judge for the Yankee home run lead with eight. The tie lasted less than a minute when Judge drove a pitch the opposite way for his ninth.
“I can’t let him have that,” says Judge. “It was fun and I’m happy he got us a lead and we were tied for a second, so, had to take that back.”
An inning later, Rice hit his second home run for a 6-0 lead, his first multi-homer game since hitting three against Boston in 2024.
The Yankees’ first back-to-back-to-back first-inning barrage came in Game 2 of the season, when they posterized former teammate Nestor Cortes for consecutive homers by Goldschmidt, Bellinger, and Judge leading off the first.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of a pair of back-to-back-to-back leadoff homer gambits. “What a performance.”
Judge hit three homers in that March 29 game and the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine, causing a brief media tumult thanks to the torpedo bats Volpe and Chisholm used. Judge needs no torpedo; he continued his sizzling first month with his usual lumber.
For Gibson, it was the first time he’d given up four homers in an inning and his five homers given up were a career high — and he needed just two innings to do so. He gave up 11 hits, nine runs, five home runs and two walks before manager Brandon Hyde removed him with two outs in the fourth.
The barrage finally stopped after Austin Wells – the lone Yankee without a hit at that point – crushed an opposite-field shot off reliever Bryan Baker with two outs in the top of the ninth. Now, the Yankees have a major league-leading 51 home runs — and an entire summer ahead to add to their longball lore.
This story has been updated with new information.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyle Gibson vs Yankees bats: Bronx Bombers light up Orioles starter
