Yankees hit longtime enemy with Nestor Cortes-style rude home run awakening vs. Orioles

The New York Yankees have long been stymied by Kyle Gibson's unique brand of nonsense. Any start against Gibson's speed-changing whirling dervishes is a coin flip; either he's going seven of the most effortless innings of all time, or he's battling from the start and exiting early.

Tuesday was Gibson's 2025 debut, and it went just about as swimmingly as Nestor Cortes' reckoning with the torpedo bats in the Bronx at the tail end of March.

Trent Grisham started things off at Camden Yards with a blast - as he's wont to do. That's kind of just how he handles his business these days. Then Aaron Judge followed, giving the Yankees a modest lead - nice, but not completely out of character.

Then, uh, things got strange, in much the same way they did when Cortes returned to the Bronx for the first time after he was traded and got immediately walloped.

Cortes hit the 60-Day injured list shortly after that start, falling victim to a flexor strain after Appearance No. 2. Hopefully, Gibson doesn't fall victim to the same fate, though he's checked the first box on Cortes' timeline. Two of the next three batters, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger, also homered. Four solo shots on 12 pitches to five batters. Chaos. Madness.

Yankees' lineup adjustment vs. Kyle Gibson pays off, as Cody Bellinger hits fourth home run of first inning

Bumping Bellinger out of the No. 3 spot behind Aaron Judge appears to have paid early dividends!

Stay tuned in this one. It's only the first inning. This roller coaster ride has a long way to go. Last time the Yankees teed off in similar fashion, they put up 20 runs, won 20-9, Pablo Reyes made a metric ton of errors, and Carlos Carrasco, ostensibly a member of the rotation, made his pinstripe debut in relief.

Oh, and somewhere in the middle of the first frame, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hurt himself on an awkward swing? He drilled a triple later in the at-bat, but exited swiftly. There's always something to dampen the party, after all (though what a wild party we seem to have unfolding at OPACY).