KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Entering this season, the Baltimore Orioles’ rotation was expected to be this team’s weak spot.
Without ace Corbin Burnes and with budding aces Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez on the injured list, Baltimore’s rotation was without the same firepower it had in years past.
How much of a problem the rotation will be remains an unanswered question, but it didn’t look promising through the season’s first eight games, during which Baltimore’s starting pitchers compiled a 6.10 ERA that ranked as the second worst in MLB.
But Saturday against the Royals, for at least one day, Tomoyuki Sugano silenced the criticism and calmed the nerves about the Orioles’ rotation. The Japanese superstar twirled 5 1/3 sharp innings, allowing only one run and striking out four to lead the Orioles to an 8-1 win over the Kansas City Royals.
The victory — Sugano’s first in MLB — ended Baltimore’s three-game losing streak and followed Friday’s sloppy 8-2 loss. The Orioles are 4-5 through nine games, the same record they held in 2023. Those Orioles went 97-56 the rest of the way to end the season with 101 wins.
In his first MLB start, Sugano was shaky to start and exited with hand cramps. Saturday, he looked like the 35-year-old veteran and decorated pitcher he is. Sugano was efficient early, attacking the corners of the zone against the free-swinging Royals and getting whiffs with his sharp sweeper and fall-off-the-table splitter.
After escaping a jam in the fifth, Sugano hung a curveball in the sixth to superstar Bobby Witt Jr., who hammered it for a solo homer to left field. Sugano exited with one out and two runners on, but reliever Bryan Baker continued his impressive start to the season by instantly inducing an inning-ending double play to bail out Sugano.
Baltimore’s bats totaled 12 hits and eight runs one day after having most of their hard-hit balls land in gloves. Gary Sánchez kicked off the scoring with a two-run single off Royals righty Michael Wacha in the second. Four innings later, the Orioles scored four runs off Wacha and his bullpen. Heston Kjerstad, Ramón Urías and Jackson Holliday each delivered RBI hits in the frame.
Holliday’s hit was his second of three in what was one of the best offensive performances of his career. The 21-year-old went 3 for 4 with a triple to right-center field, a single to center field and another knock to left-center.
Tyler O’Neill capped off the Orioles’ scoring in the seventh with a two-run triple to center field. It was the second ball O’Neill mashed on the afternoon, but neither left the yard as they should have because of the frigid temperatures and wind at Kauffman Stadium.
Instant analysis
Through the first eight games of Baltimore’s season, the offense has been boom or bust, lacking consistency from game to game.
Manager Brandon Hyde said Saturday after the 8-2 loss in the series opener that he expects his offense to improve.
“I think we’re going to swing the bat this year,” Hyde said. “I think we’ve had our moments offensively. But we still haven’t put together a series full of at-bats, which we have the ability to do.”
They showcased just that in Saturday’s four-run sixth inning, one of the club’s best offensive frames this season. And the inning might not have bore fruit if not for an unconventional decision from Hyde, and one of his young players proving his skipper right.
With two outs and two runners on, Royals manager Matt Quatraro made the obvious move, bringing in left-handed reliever Sam Long to face Kjerstad, a lefty. A few days ago, when faced with a similar decision, Hyde pinch-hit Ryan Mountcastle to replace Kjerstad, who hasn’t been trusted much to face lefties in his young big league career.
But Saturday, Hyde didn’t call on lefty killer Ramón Laureano off the bench, ...
