Sugano strikes out eight and O'Hearn hits big homer in Orioles' 4-3 win

All of the same questions came at the Orioles earlier today as local media detached from the team during the road trip got to take turns. Any player approaching his locker was fair game.

What’s wrong and can it be fixed? What’s the mood in the clubhouse? What’s the level of frustration? Is anyone panicked? Should everyone be panicked?

The Orioles insist that they can get on a roll. Seasons aren’t lost in April. Players aren’t melting down over the defeats. Does no good to lose composure and faith.

As if trying to quiet the noise, the Orioles took the field tonight against the first-place Yankees and didn’t lose a game.

Tomoyuki Sugano tossed five scoreless innings with a career-high eight strikeouts, Ryan O’Hearn hit a three-run homer and the Orioles hung on for a 4-3 win before an announced crowd of 22,775 at Camden Yards. The victory is their second in the last eight tries and third in 10. They didn’t forget how to form the congratulatory handshake line.

Cedric Mullins robbed Paul Goldschmidt of a two-run homer with a leaping catch in the fifth, and the Orioles improved their record to 11-17 after being swept over the weekend in Detroit.

Félix Bautista recorded his fourth save after the Yankees scored twice in the eighth to tighten the save opportunity. He retired the side in order and struck out Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger.

“You play the Yankees, Judge is going to hit in the ninth you feel like every single time,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “Two really good splits to Judge there at the end, and he goes 3-0 to Bellinger and to be able to come back and do what he did, he’s getting a little better every time out.”

Sugano totaled nine strikeouts in his first five starts and had a career-best six tonight through the third inning. Judge and Bellinger delivered back-to-back singles with one out in the third and Sugano fanned Goldschmidt and Jazz Chisholm Jr. with splitters to maintain a 1-0 lead.

Six of Sugano’s strikeouts came on his split, and nine of his 17 whiffs. His ERA is down to 3.00.

“Every outing I find something new, and today, especially, the sweeper was really good,” Sugano said through interpreter Yuto Sakurai. “Fastball was working as well.”

O’Hearn had one of the biggest swings in a long time, following back-to-back walks in the third with his three-run shot to right field. O’Hearn’s fifth home run came on a sweeper from Will Warren, pushed the Orioles ahead 4-0 and made them 7-for-65 with RISP since Easter. They finished 1-for-7 tonight.

“Little exhale in the dugout after what we’ve been through lately and the road trip we went on and tough time scoring runs, tough time winning games.” Hyde said. “Three-run homer there, that was a huge hit.”

Keegan Akin followed his 1 2/3 scoreless innings as an opener Saturday by striking out three of four batters faced. Ramón Urías’ throwing error in the seventh led to an unearned run off Yennier Cano, and Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells had run-scoring doubles off Gregory Soto in the eighth to shave the lead to 4-3.

Hyde let Soto face switch-hitting Jasson Domínguez, a career .109/.258/.164 hitter against left-handers before tonight. Soto struck him out with the count full. Soto stayed in the game to face switch-hitting Oswaldo Cabrera, who’s also much worse against lefties. Cabrera grounded out.

Let the music play again in the clubhouse.

“Anytime you’re losing there’s frustration, yeah. That’s natural, that’s normal. They’re not robots,” Hyde said earlier today.

“There’s gonna be frustration when we’re losing games and we’re not getting the hits or the starts that we need.”

Asked earlier today when some of the louder voices in the clubhouse start preaching a sense of urgency, Mullins said, “That part, I could not give you a direct answer, but I do know there is no panic.”

“I think there’s just a continuous want to be better every single day in this clubhouse,” he said, “and especially with the losses accumulating.”

Improvement with runners in scoring position is imperative. The failures have been killing this club.

Mullins led off the bottom of the first with a single and he raced to third base on Gunnar Henderson’s double. Adley Rutschman flied to shallow left field and O’Hearn and Ryan Mountcastle struck out.  

A better strategy was employed in the second inning. Jackson Holliday singled with two outs and came around on Ramón Laureano’s fly ball over the head of center fielder Trent Grisham. Never mind putting a runner in scoring position. They can get home from first base.

Laureano was stranded but the Orioles didn’t complain. He had a clutch hit, and they took the first lead for only the second time in their last nine games.

Sugano loaded the bases in the first inning and threw 26 pitches, but the Yankees didn’t take advantage of a single, walk and hit batter. Volpe grounded into a force to douse the rally. Sugano retired the side in order in the second on 11 pitches and stranded four runners over his last three innings.

“Amazing, amazing,” O’Hearn said. “It seems like he doesn’t throw anything in the middle. He just stays on the edges. He throws so many pitches. He was electric, and we need that. Tomo was outstanding.”

“I thought he was great,” Hyde said. “Such a tough lineup to get through two-plus times because of their elite ability to not chase pitches and control the strike zone. The fella (Judge) hitting second for them is just such a tough out. Just really impressed. The ability to move the ball around the strike zone and change speeds, to pitch, it’s kind of a lost art in today’s game. And it’s refreshing. He dumps curveballs in for strikes, I liked the split tonight, being able to locate his fastball to both sides.”

His final pitch, and his 95^th, was hit 402 feet to center field and Mullins timed the leap perfectly to deny Goldschmidt. Sugano applauded by smacking his glove and other teammates raised their arms.

“It affected me big time,” Sugano said. “If it wasn’t for that catch, we might have not win. So, big-time play.”

This was going to be their night. They were due.  

“It’s the way this game is,” O’Hearn said. “You just get hot and you keep it rolling. I think tonight was a step in the right direction. Guys in our lineup are extremely capable of putting up runs. We’ve shown that we have really good hitters, guys who make great swing decisions, and obviously the power. All of it, together.

“It’s, what, April 28? It feels like we’ve been punched in the gut a little bit this first month, but I have all the confidence in the world in these guys, and we’re going to get it going.”

The full water works are back, too – the faucet turning for a single and sprinkler for an extra-base hit. The Orioles want to change their luck, the vibe and the line of questioning.

* O’Hearn began his media scrum by apologizing for his vulgar remark at the hydration station that aired on the YES Network.

“There’s a hot mic in the dugout there, and obviously, we’re fired up and say some things that we don’t want kids to hear,” he said.” I just want to say sorry for that. Big win for the boys. We’ve been grinding, so to get that hit there, get some momentum, put us up like that, a lot of emotion and obviously very happy with how it turned out today.”

* Infielder Jordan Westburg went on the injured list before the game with a strained hamstring.

“Hopefully, it’s not too long. Hopefully, it’s not much more than the 10 days,” Hyde said.

“He’s been playing beat up all year and that Toronto series, I took a lot of heat for sitting him in that fourth game after he hit two homers in the third game of that series, and he could barely get in the clubhouse the next day because he was so sore, and he’s been trying to grind through it. We gave him some days off.

“Then, he tweaked his hammy a couple of days ago on a throw in the bottom of the eighth, so hopefully, get the hammy right, get the body right and be good to go for the last five months.”

Hyde also said catcher Gary Sánchez, who joined Westburg on the injured list, has a stress reaction in his hand.