Tomoyuki

Sugano

Sugano didn’t allow a run until the seventh inning, and that came on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Taylor Ward. The 35-year-old didn’t walk anyone and struck out five, and continues to give hitters trouble in his rookie season. Sugano’s lack of elite swing-and-miss stuff will results in some clunkers, but it’s pretty clear he can pitch. He’ll face the Twins on Thursday.

Sugano pitched well enough to win, but his offense didn’t come close to playing well enough to give him that opportunity. The 35-year-old allowed just four hits — one of those a solo homer by Cavan Biggio — and he struck out four against two walks. Sugano forged a 2.79 ERA in April, and he’s off to a nice start for the month of May, even with the loss. He’ll get the Twins next week in Minnesota.

It remains to be seen how long the decision lasts, but the Orioles can probably get by with a four-man rotation for the next week or two due to off days. Morton has been shifted to the bullpen after tossing 2 1/3 frames on Tuesday against the Yankees. It’ll be Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Kyle Gibson taking the ball for a three-game series against the Royals that gets underway on Friday.

Sugano’s signature splitter was on point this one as he piled up 17 swinging strikes and limited New York’s potent lineup to just five singles and one walk over five scoreless frames. He entered this outing with the lowest strikeout percentage (eight percent) of any qualified starter in baseball this season, so we’re not anticipating a massive uptick in strikeouts moving forward. The 35-year-old veteran has proven to be a viable back-end rotation stabilizer for fantasy purposes, even if he’s not going to miss a ton of bats. He’ll carry a strong 3.00 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 17/6 K/BB ratio across 33 innings (six starts) into a home outing on Sunday against the Royals.

Overall, Sugano had another fine start, he was just done in by two bad pitches. All three of the Nationals’ runs came from home runs by James Wood and Josh Bell. Besides that, they rarely threatened despite Sugano forcing just four total swings and misses. He throws plenty of junk and has a deep enough repertoire to be fairly effective, as he’s been so far during his first season. He’ll likely regress from his current 3.54 ERA though and is scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Yankees and Royals.

The runs came on back-to-back homers from Daniel Schneeman and Austin Hedges in the third, of course. This is pretty much what Sugano is going to do when he’s on; he’ll be vulnerable to the home run ball, but he’ll also produce a bunch of routine contact while walking no one and striking out only a few more. He fanned three tonight, giving him eight strikeouts in 22 innings on the season. Nevertheless, he’s 2-1 with a 3.43 ERA. He’ll pitch against the Nationals next time out.

Sugano allowed a run on back-to-back doubles to start the game before escaping the first inning with just the one run scored. A walk and two base hits brought one more run in for the Blue Jays in the second. Anthony Santander added one more for Toronto in the third on a solo blast. Sugano would exit in the fifth with two outs at 73 pitches. He failed to record a strikeout. The 35-year-old right-hander has struck out just five batters through 14 innings on the season. He’ll take on the Guardians in Baltimore on Thursday.

Friday’s scheduled starters — Tomoyuki Sugano and Bowden Francis — are expected to pitch on Saturday. Friday’s postponed game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader on July 29.

Sugano got off to a great start, retiring the first eight Royals hitters before working around a base hit and a walk with two outs in the third. Bobby Witt Jr. finally got to him in the sixth with a leadoff homer to put Kansas City on the board. Sugano hit a batter and allowed a base hit, leaving with one out and two runners on. Bryan Baker entered and left them stranded. The 35-year-old right-hander will look to follow the strong start in a matchup against the Blue Jays in Baltimore on Friday.

Fortunately, the 35-year-old hurler said after the game that he was already feeling better and that he doesn’t anticipate it to be an issue going forward. Prior to exiting, Sugano had allowed two runs on four hits and a pair of walks in his four-plus innings of work. It sounds like he should be alright to make his next scheduled start, but be sure to pay attention to his status in the coming days to be sure.