Defensive lapses, control issues plague Gibson in loss to Royals
In some ways, Kyle Gibson's two starts this year against Kansas City weren't all that different. The fates the Twins right-hander received in each, though, were very different.
Gibson was hit with the loss Monday as Minnesota fell 7-1 to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. He gave up five fewer hits Monday than he did five days ago against this same team, but didn't get much help from his defense and also walked four batters. Gibson couldn't get through the sixth inning Monday and surrendered four runs -- three earned -- on just four hits.
After beating the Royals on Wednesday, Gibson couldn't do the same on the road. He exited in the sixth inning without recording an out.
"Gibby didn't have his best command," said Twins manager Paul Molitor. "He didn't give up a lot of hits, but he allowed some base runners with the base on balls."
The Twins' offense couldn't help Gibson out much. Neither could his defense. Earlier in the sixth inning, left fielder Oswaldo Arcia dropped a routine fly ball by Mike Moustakas to lead off the inning. Moustakas later came around to score on a double by former Twins designated hitter Kendrys Morales to put the Royals up 2-1 on Gibson and Minnesota.
"You move on. Errors happen," Gibson said of the dropped fly ball. "I think they're just a little more blatant in the outfield, but errors happen all the time. For me, being a ground ball pitcher, that should really not affect me too much. One pitch, get a double play."
Of course, the double by Morales came after one of Gibson's four walks. He put Eric Hosmer on base on an eight-pitch walk, putting two runners on base with nobody out. Though Gibson was hurt by the Arcia error, he didn't do himself any favors with the walks.
In Gibson's win against the Royals last week, he didn't walk a single batter. In the two games Gibson has struggled this year, control has been an issue. He walked five batters in his season debut earlier this month against Detroit and wound up surrendering six runs in just 3 2/3 innings in that outing. Monday, it was four walks in five-plus innings.
"He was struggling with the feel for his offspeed pitches in particular," Molitor said. "Last start he had a real good slider and changeup. Tonight he had to kind of battle with his fastball."
Gibson exited Monday's game with runners on second and third after the Morales double. He was replaced by right-hander Blaine Boyer, who threw a wild pitch that allowed Hosmer to score from third. That run was charged to Gibson and allowed Morales to advance to third. One batter later, Morales scored on a sacrifice fly, another run that belonged to Gibson.
When all was said and done, Gibson threw 57 of his 94 pitches for strikes. One of the balls resulted in the Royals' first run of the game. Gibson walked Hosmer in the third inning on a wild pitch that bounced past Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki and allowed Alcides Escobar to score.
Of the four walks Gibson issued, he said the one to Hosmer was probably the one that hurt the most.
"That was probably one of the more frustrating at-bats because I looked at the replay and he check swung on a pretty bad pitch," Gibson said. "He was looking inside fastball there. If I just probably throw that over the middle and let it go down close to the dirt he might swing out over the top."
FOX Sports North's Marney Gellner contributed to this report.
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