Kyle Gibson
By RICH DUBROFF
Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) — Ryan Mountcastle hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the seventh inning and scored on an infield hit to lead the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles to their 101st victory of the season, 5-2 over the last-place Boston Red Sox 5-2 on Saturday night.
Bruce Zimmermann (2-0), recalled from Triple-A Norfolk earlier in the day, pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Greenfield’s Kyle Gibson, who allowed seven hits in five scoreless innings.
Gibson fanned four and walked one in his final start of the regular season. He ended the year 15-9 with a 4.73 ERA. He struck out 157 in 192 innings.
His win total was the most of his 11-year MLB career. The 192 innings are the most since throwing 196.2 in 2018 with the Minnesota Twins.
Baltimore hosts an AL Division Series starting Oct. 7. The Orioles have not announced starting pitchers for the series against the winner of the Texas Rangers-Tampa Bay Rays AL Wildcard Series.
Last year, Gibson, who was a starter all season for the Philadelphia Phillies, was in the bullpen for the postseason. This season, he leads Baltimore with 15 wins and 192 innings, but his place in the postseason rotation isn’t certain.
“They’ll figure that out,” Gibson said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t know that any of us really do. Be ready whenever they tell you that it’s your chance to pitch and you take the ball whether it’s in the first inning, the fourth inning, the eighth inning.”
