Tomoyuki Sugano made what I suspect will be his final spring start for the Baltimore Orioles tonight. I would submit that he’s an outstanding candidate to pitch Friday night in Toronto. His numbers don’t look great tonight, but they were also wind-aided. In fairness, so were the Orioles’. Sugano’s line: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 4 K.
The game began in a 50-55 minute rain delay. Which is odd for a spring game, but a flash storm popped up in the greater Sarasota area. A lot of times when it rains in spring training teams have a quick hook and cancel the game. Not the Orioles and New York.
New York got on the board early with an RBI-double by Chisholm in the first. Keep in mind, many pitchers work on different things in spring starts. So whether or not Sugano’s pitch selection was what it would have been in a regular season game is another story. He had good stuff, but as we saw later the wind also played a factor.
The Orioles cut that lead in half with a solo homer by Dyan O’Hearn. In fairness, that may or may not have been wind-aided as well. But Chisolm’s second at-bat definitely was. He smacked a three-run home run in the third, giving New York a 4-1 lead.
But one good turn deserves another. Adley Rutschman put the O’s to within one with a three-run home run in the last of the third. Two innings later Volpe’s solo homer extended the lead to 6-4. Again pitchers for both sides appear to have been tattooed in this game. But the reality is that the wind didn’t help anyone who pitched this evening. Not surprising in the wake of a coastal storm.
The O’s closed back to within one at 6-5 on Luis Vasquez’s RBI-single in the sixth. However New York would tack on three runs in the eighth. For their sake, it’s probably good that they did. Because Vimael Machin’s RBI-double and Jorge Mateo’s RBI-single in the ninth cut the lead to 9-7. The O’s had the tying run in scoring position before recording the final out.
I think end of the day, the story is that both teams got on the field and competed. In short, they got their work in despite the foreboding weather conditions. And at this point in the spring, that’s the real goal.
You could argue that this game ended 2-1 with New York in the lead – when many of the starters cycled out, that was the score. That plus the wind. Plug in Gunnar Henderson among others, and this game was pretty even.
The Orioles will close their home slate of spring games tomorrow evening at Ed Smith Stadium when Detroit comes in. Albert Suarez gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Detroit’s Tarik Skubal. Game time is set for just after 6 PM.
Birdland Crush 