Ex-Cardinals Starter Had Historically Bad Debut Vs. Yankees

The St. Louis Cardinals opted to move on from two veteran starters this past offseason.

St. Louis had club options for both Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn and turned both of them down. Lynn eventually announced his retirement and Gibson signed a deal with the Baltimore Orioles. He began the season in the minors building up after signing late and made his season debut against the New York Yankees on Tuesday and things didn't go as planned.

He pitched just 3 2/3 innings and allowed nine earned runs, 11 base hits, and five home runs against New York. It was a wild start with Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, and Ben Rice launching back-to-back-to-back homers to kick off the game in the top of the first inning. Paul Goldschidt followed up the three homers with a ground out and Cody Bellinger then launched the club's fourth homer of the inning. Rice went on to tag Gibson again in the second inning with another homer.

OptaSTATS shared on social media afterward that Gibson became the second hurler to allow three homers in three batters, four homers in the first inning of a game, and five homers overall in the same game.

"In MLB history, 2 pitchers have allowed the following in a game: 3 HR through 3 batters, 4 HR in the 1st inning, 5 HR for the game," OptaSTATS shared. "Both did so this year, vs. the Yankees, in their first start of the season & on the 29th day of the month (Nestor Cortes on 3/29, Kyle Gibson tonight)."