CINCINNATI _ One of the keys to the Orioles' season is right-hander Kevin Gausman continuing his growth into the dependable frontline starter the team believes he can become. And on most nights, there's no reason to question that trajectory.
Tuesday in Cincinnati was not one of those nights.
Gausman was shellacked by the Cincinnati Reds in the Orioles' first interleague game of the season, lasting just 22/3 innings and allowing 13 of the 20 batters he faced reach base in the Orioles' ugly 9-3 loss at Great American Ball Park.
He was battered for eight runs _ tying his career high _ while allowing eight hits, three walks and a hit batter.
Gausman's first four starts this season have been unspectacular. Gausman has recorded just one quality start over that span, and he owns a 7.23 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .325 (26-for-80) against him this season.
The Orioles arrived in Cincinnati having posted four straight quality starts against a floundering Blue Jays team _ a run started by Gausman's best start of the season on Thursday night in Toronto, where he held the Blue Jays to one run over six innings.
Gausman's start Tuesday marked the first time he failed to get out of the third inning in 38 major league starts, dating to the shortest start of his big league career, a 21/3-inning outing against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sept. 2, 2015.
Gausman pitched effectively in his last start with strong fastball command, but on Tuesday, he struggled to locate his fastball, and the Reds make him play.
The big blow was on Adam Duvall's grand slam to left in the second inning, a hit that came when Gausman hung an 0-2 split changeup over the inner half of the plate and Duvall turned on it for his first career grand slam to fuel a five-run second inning for Cincinnati.
That put the Reds up 6-1, but they weren't done beating up on Gausman, scoring another run on Tucker Barnhart's RBI single. Jonathan Schoop's relay throw home nabbed Scooter Gennett at the plate to end the inning.
Gausman would last just three batters into the third before receiving the hook from manager Buck Showalter after he allowed a two-out double to Jose Peraza on his 79th pitch. But left-handed reliever Vidal Nuno immediately allowed a two-run homer to make the score 9-1.
Gausman's outing was rough from the beginning. He loaded the bases three batters into the game and was lucky to get out of the inning having allowed just two runs � coming on Duvall's sacrifice fly and Barnhart's two-runs double.
Three relievers accounted for 51/3 innings of relief, including both of the Orioles' long relievers, Nuno and right-hander Tyler Wilson. Both threw at least two innings, meaning the Orioles would likely have to call up an extra relief arm from the minors to replenish the bullpen for Wednesday.
If center fielder Adam Jones was feeling any repercussions of an ugly collision he had with the center field wall Sunday in Toronto, he didn't show it.
Jones provided the Orioles' only home run of the night, lining a 1-2 sinker from soft-tosser Bronson Arroyo into the left-field stands.
Jones, who has seemingly been playing more deep in center field in recent days, also flagged down a blooper into shallow center off the bat of Scooter Gennett in the fourth inning.
Arroyo held the Orioles to just one run over his first four innings before allowing Jones' home run in the fifth.
