Orioles' Tomoyuki Sugano falters again in lopsided 6-0 loss to Rangers

Sam Cohn, The Baltimore Sun on Jul 2, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — Not so long ago, Tomoyuki Sugano was among the most efficient pitchers on Baltimore’s staff. The past month hasn’t been so kind to him.

He hasn’t completed five innings in any of his past five starts. The 35-year-old rookie allowed 22 earned runs in that span, the most of any five-game stretch in his short MLB career. And opposing hitters have clubbed at least one home run against him in four straight outings. That makes 18 homers allowed in 17 starts. Sugano was the hallmark of consistency — or at least the Orioles pitcher best equipped to keep his mistakes to blips, not trends.

Wednesday night, the Texas Rangers gave him more trouble to the tune of a career-high 10 hits and all six earned runs of a 6-0 Orioles loss.

The head-rattling fireworks at Globe Life Field were first discharged in the third inning. Texas’ Billy McKinney drew a walk and Josh Smith singled. Then Marcus Semien drilled an 84-mph sweeper over the left-field fence. It was an early 3-0 Texas lead that made Sugano purse his lips as he looked up toward the replay board.

Earlier this season, pitching coach Drew French told The Sun that Sugano was a master of flushing innings — troubled ones, sharp ones or somewhere in the middle. At the time, he was. With Sugano, “It’s just, ‘What’s next?’ ” French said in May.

Not so much on a July night in Arlington.

Those pesky fireworks returned in the fifth — still two days out from the national holiday of pyrotechnics. This time, it was Corey Seager. The five-time All-Star turned on an 85.5-mph splitter and sent it hurling toward center field — a 420-foot bomb.

Those two home runs sandwiched a two-out, two-RBI single from Ezequiel Duran in the fourth inning.

Sugano washed his foot across the rubber slab atop the pitcher’s mound, wiped the sweat puddling his forehead and tried to figure what was next. With the game feeling more out of reach, interim manager Tony Mansolino pulled Sugano. The six earned runs allowed stacked on last week’s career-high seven earned runs allowed versus Tampa Bay.

Corbin Martin came in first for relief. The Orioles (37-49) selected his contract from Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday morning. He pitched 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts. Yennier Cano and Andrew Kittredge combined for two innings of hitless, scoreless baseball.

Instant analysis

Baltimore’s bats were screaming Monday night, with enough heroics to scrape out a win. They simmered to an indoor voice by Tuesday, cobbling together a couple of runs on seven hits. The Orioles offense didn’t have much to say in Wednesday’s series finale — their ninth shutout loss of the season, one more than they had all of 2024.

Third baseman Jordan Westburg hasn’t been in the lineup all week, sidelined by a left index finger injury. He’s a spark plug for the rest of the offense and Baltimore sure could use him. Westburg said earlier this week he’s near healthy enough — though he doesn’t expect to be 100% — to return. There’s a chance he gets back in the lineup in Atlanta this weekend. And Tyler O’Neill’s rehab assignment was moved to Triple-A Norfolk this week with the expectation that he’ll rejoin the big league club in Atlanta after a month and a half on the injured list with a shoulder issue.

Are those two the answer to these hitting woes? The Orioles sure hope so.

On deck

After a wild Monday night win in extra innings that featured as much fight as Baltimore has shown all season, the Orioles dropped two in a row to the Rangers by a combined 16 runs. They’ll have an off day Thursday then three games in Atlanta. The projected starters are Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer and then Trevor Rogers.

Around the horn

— Before Wednesday’s game, the team put pitcher Keegan Akin on the 15-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation. Righty reliever Yennier Cano was recalled in a corresponding move. The Orioles also designated Matt Bowman for assignment and selected the contract of Martin.

— While Ryan O’Hearn was named an All-Star starter at designated hitter, sophomore second baseman Jackson Holliday will have to wait until Saturday to find out if he’ll be at Atlanta’s Truist Park on July 15.

— The Orioles avoided sending a fourth catcher to the injured list when Gary Sánchez’s imaging came back negative. He took a ball off the finger Tuesday night but was back in the lineup a day later.