Rodriguez works career-high seven innings and Orioles defeat Padres 4-1 (updated)

SAN DIEGO – Juan Soto swung the bat with every ounce of strength in his body, almost jumping out of his spikes, and let his momentum carry toward the Padres dugout before regaining his balance. Stumbling out of the box as Grayson Rodriguez’s third strikeout victim. His feet having a mind of their own.

Manny Machado followed with a towering popup and threw back his head in frustration.

Rodriguez was controlling the Padres tonight as if holding a joystick rather than a baseball.

Rodriguez lasted a career-high seven innings, Gunnar Henderson plated three runs with a bases-loaded double in the fifth and the Orioles defeated the Padres 4-1 before an announced crowd of 38,176 at Petco Park.

Ryan O’Hearn homered off Yu Darvish in the second inning, and the Orioles won their third game in a row to improve their record to 74-45 overall, 37-23 on the road and 26-13 in series openers. They also are 44-11 when scoring first, the best record in the majors.

The Orioles will go 78 consecutive series without being swept. They're a season-high 29 games above .500.

"It's so much fun," O'Hearn said. "Can't really describe it other than that. It's so much fun to show up at the yard expecting to win from the first pitch. You've got confidence in every guy on the field, every guy in the lineup. The pitchers have been unbelievable, and when you've got a lead like that late, I feel extremely confident in the guys coming out of the 'pen. They're going to come in and do the job.

"Overall, it's been unbelievable. I'm enjoying every night. Obviously, enjoying every win."

Jacob Webb tossed a scoreless eighth in a setup role and hasn’t allowed a run in four innings with the Orioles, and Félix Bautista recorded his 32^nd save to lead the American League after issuing back-to-back walks with one out. Machado grounded into a double play.

Rodriguez held the Padres to one run and three hits, with one walk and six strikeouts in his 16^th major league start and has lowered his ERA from 7.35 on May 26 to 5.44. He’s registered a 3.03 ERA in six starts since returning from Triple-A Norfolk.

"Unbelievable," O'Hearn said. "Electric stuff, obviously. From my angle, it's cool to see just how effortless it looks. He was mixing it up, throwing strikes with all his pitches. Attacking guys, a lot of first-pitch strikes. Just fun to play defense behind him."

The decision to send down Rodriguez for a reset turned around his season.

In the last five starts, Rodriguez has limited opponents to eight runs and struck out 26 batters in 30 2/3 innings. The homerless streak reached five games, two short of Zack Britton’s rookie record for Orioles pitchers working at least five innings in each appearance, but Garrett Cooper cleared the center field fence leading off the sixth.

Rodriguez had retired 11 in a row at that point. He began the sixth at only 61 pitches. Thirty-five of the first 49 were strikes through the fourth.

"That's his best start of the year, hands down," said manager Brandon Hyde. "The homer to Cooper, and that was really it. Just total command from start to finish. Loved the slider, loved the changeup. He was throwing 99 to 100 mph through seven innings.

"Just a night when we're extremely short in the bullpen, he goes seven great innings."

A two-out walk to Xander Bogaerts in the seventh brought pitching coach Chris Holt to the mound but kept Rodriguez in the game. Jake Cronenworth bounced to the mound on Rodriguez’s 95^th pitch.

"Anytime you don't get the ball taken away from you, obviously the manager, pitching coaches, they've still got some confidence left in you," Rodriguez said. "Being able to go after that hitter after the walk, that was big for me."

O’Hearn hit his 10^th home run, a solo shot off Darvish leading off the top of the second inning. Darvish retired nine of the first 10 batters before Henderson’s leadoff single in the fourth.

Cronenworth made a diving stop of Anthony Santander’s ground ball and started a 3-6-1 double play. O’Hearn reached on an infield hit and Ryan Mountcastle singled to extend his on-base streak to 21 games, but Cedric Mullins struck out.

Aaron Hicks and Jordan Westburg singled with one out in the fifth, Adley Rutschman walked and Henderson lifted a first-pitch curveball down the left field line for a three-run double and a 4-0 lead.

Hicks singled twice in his return from the injured list. Austin Hays replaced him in left field in the eighth.

"Kind of ran into that one early, gave us some confidence," O'Hearn said. "Feel like he started switching it up after that, throwing more fastballs instead of sliders and curveballs and stuff. ... Just one of those guys you have to keep grinding out, grinding out. Big bases-loaded hit there from Gunny, and that's all we needed tonight."

Darvish wouldn’t win, but he made history by fanning Ramón Urías in the sixth for the 1,919th strikeout of his career, the most by a Japanese pitcher in major league history. Hideo Nomo, who works in the Padres front office and attended tonight’s game, held the previous record at 1,918.

Rodriguez struck out the next three batters after Cooper’s home run – on a changeup, 99.9 mph fastball and slider. Ha-Seong Kim saw nine pitches in his at-bat.

The night began for Rodriguez with a 101 mph fastball that Kim grounded back to the mound. The rookie brought the heat and secondary stuff to dominate.  

"Felt really good," Rodriguez said. "Felt good in the bullpen before the game. Me and Rutsch were locked in there from the get-go. He did a great job tonight."

Rodriguez hadn't won since May 9.

"I think wins are nice, but ultimately, it doesn't really matter," he said. "It doesn't really depict how your season goes. Just glad we could get some runs and get my guys off the field so they could get in there and hit. It helps them out a lot when they're not standing around out there."

The difference in Rodriguez before and after being optioned is about “confidence, command,” Hyde said before the game.

“Fastball command No. 1. Confidence in it. Understand how it plays,” Hyde said.

“I just think the best thing for him was to work on the command of all his stuff down in Triple-A without worrying about results. And not just be able to out-stuff guys in the minor leagues, knowing that you probably can’t do that here, especially in a rotation situation. And he did that. Went down there and worked on command of all his pitches, and the command has been better since he’s been back.”

"The stuff is always there," O'Hearn said. "It just seems like he's attacking guys. He seems more confident, and obviously it translates to good performance and overall helps us out."

"I feel more kind of like myself," Rodriguez said. "That first stint in the big leagues, I don't like to say that was me. So I'm just glad that after going back to Norfolk, working with (pitching coach) Justin Ramsey on all that stuff, just getting back to being myself and making sure that makes the trip back up here to the big leagues.

"Everything feels good. Obviously, I haven't pitched this much before, so we're kind of exploring new territory, but so far the body's holding up and we're taking it start by start."