Just another sign of the Apocalypse for the Orioles

My memory is far from perfect, but I’m pretty sure that in 45-plus years covering baseball I’ve never seen a major league game begin with four home runs and two doubles in the first seven plate appearances.

Talk about a buzzkill. The Orioles were feeling pretty good about themselves after Monday night’s series-opening victory over the first-place Yankees, but they fell victim to that old saying about momentum only being as good as the next day’s starting pitcher.

In this case, both of the next day’s starting pitchers.

Kyle Gibson was making his 2025 debut after re-signing with the Orioles late in spring training, hoping to stabilize a rotation that has been in disarray throughout the first month of the season. Calling the top of the first inning a rude awakening would be like calling the Titanic disaster an unfortunate sailing mishap.

The Yankees were obviously smarting after Monday’s one-run loss and their immediate response reminded me of that scene from “Blazing Saddles” when Mongo was on a rampage and Gene Wilder warns the sheriff, “If you shoot him, you’ll just make him mad.”

It happened so fast that thousands of Yankees fans had barely settled into the prime seats they bought from thousands of Orioles season ticket holders who obviously ignored my recent column advising them to keep the faith – at least until early May.

Leadoff hitter Trent Grisham hit the first strike Gibson threw in his second incarnation with the Orioles and the ball almost hit the warehouse. Aaron Judge didn’t get all of the next pitch, but it still landed on the flag court. Designated hitter Ben Rice had the common decency to wait for the second pitch before hitting the first of his two homers to straightaway right field.

After a welcome one-batter break, Cody Bellinger also delivered a souvenir to the flag court faithful before Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe ended the extra-base unpleasantness with back-to-back doubles.

And that was just the beginning. It wasn’t long before the real tragedy of reserve catcher Gary Sánchez’s move to the injured list this week was that he would not be available to pitch the last couple of innings.

Meanwhile, Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, was making the crushing offensive attack almost irrelevant. He took a perfect game into the sixth before walking Emmanuel Rivera to open that inning and allowing a wall-banging double to Jorge Mateo moments later to set up the first Orioles run. Gunnar Henderson finally forced the Yankees into their bullpen with his third homer of the season in the seventh.

Of course, if you’re going to give up all those runs, you might as well give them up in the middle of a three-game set with one win already in the bank. If young Cade Povich can turn in another performance Wednesday like the one he delivered against the Nationals last Thursday, the Orioles still have a chance to turn this series into a very positive experience.