Baltimore’s 35-year-old rookie looked shaky once again and the offense couldn’t get anything going as the O’s dropped another series to the Rangers.
Tomoyuki Sugano struggled once again, the offense provide him no support and the O’s lost another rubber match with a 6-0 loss to the Rangers.
Sugano was looking to bounce back from his rough month of June, and he showed promising signs early on. After giving up a 1st inning lead-off single to Josh Smith, Sugano retired the next six batters he faced while picking up a pair of strikeouts. He showed plenty of the things that made him successful early in the season—successfully pitching to contact, using his splitter effectively and keeping his fastball out of the middle of the plate.
The stitches holding Sugano’s good start together began to unravel after a lead-off walk in the 3rd. Rangers No.8 hitter Billy McKinney reached after a 3-2 fastball failed to find the zone. Smith then picked up Texas’ first hit since his single in the 1st with a ground ball smoked through the right side.
Corey Seager then grounded out to first to move both runners into scoring position. Marcus Semien then stepped into the box and promptly blasted a first-pitch sweeper into the left-center bullpens to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.
If the stitches started to come apart on the Semien homer, everything truly unraveled on another two-out hit in the 4th. Sugano still seemed shaken to begin the 4th, as Alejandor Osuna started the inning by slapping a hanging curveball into CF for a single. Jonah Heim followed that up with a single of his own on a liner into right. Ramón Laureano tried to gun down Osuna at third, but the high-arching throw was just late and allowed Heim to move up to second.
Sugano gave the O’s his last bit of “locked in” as he tried to strand both runners. He K’d Jake Burger on a fastball a foot or two above the zone and followed it up with a K of McKinney on a splitter. He got ahead of No.9 hitter Ezequiel Duran with a first pitch fastball, but then another Sugano sweeper caught too much of the plate, and Duran flipped it into center field to score two more runs.
Signs of fatigue really began to show in the 5th. After just missing a two-run homer in the 1st, Seager finally got his long ball in his third AB, blasting a splitter over the center field fence. Sugano almost gave up back-to-back homers, but a loud fly ball off the bat of Adolis García died on the left-center warning track for an F7.
After another Osuna single, Heim barely missed a homer of his own, sending a deep single off the top of the wall in right. At that point, Tony Mansolino decided he’d seen enough, lifting Sugano for the recently called-up Corbin Martin. After giving up seven runs over five innings in his previous start, Sugano wasn’t much better Wednesday, finishing with a final line of 4.2 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 1 BB and 5 K.
Martin was a bright spot for the O’s pitching staff on Wednesday. The Texas native made his first appearance in the big leagues since July 2022, and started by stranding the two runners he inherited with a punchout of Burger. He’d then come back out in the 6th and pick up two quick outs before giving up a single to Smith. Trying to keep the score at 6-0, Martin faced off against Seager and ended the inning by striking out the two-time World Series MVP.
Offensively, there was hardly anything to speak of for the O’s. Jackson Holliday led off the game with a first-pitch single. The fast start quickly turned sour, as Baltimore wouldn’t get another hit until a Ryan O’Hearn double in the 4th.
In between those two hits, Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi set down 10 of 11 Orioles. The only base runner during that stretch came via a Cedric Mullins lead-off walk in the 3rd—only for him to be immediately erased when Jacob Stallings rolled a double-play ball.
The Orioles only had five opportunities with runners in scoring positon as the offense was shutout for the ninth time this season. After O’Hearn’s two-out double in the 4th, Gary Sánchez barely missed a two-run homer, blasting a towering, 105mph fly ball into left to end the inning. Fellow Texan Colton Cowser got a two-out double of his own in the 7th, only to be left stranded on a Ramón Urías pop-up.
Three of those opportunities came in the top of the 9th after Gunnar Henderson one-hopped the center field fence for a lead-off double. O’Hearn moved him to third with a ground out and Sánchez struck out on a fastball foul-tipped into Heim’s glove. That gave Cowser the honor of being the final out, as after a 10-pitch battle, he flew out to left to end the game.
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Even in the loss, O’Hearn had an eventful day. Before the game, he picked up his first All-Star nod as he was voted the American League’s starting DH. His double then gave him another milestone, as Turn and Burn O’Hearn turned and burned his way to his 500th career hit.