A day that began with the Orioles making a seller move concluded with a doubleheader sweep that could get more people buying into the idea that the 2025 season is salvageable.<\/p>\n
Jordan Westburg hit a two-run homer off Mets left-hander Brandon Waddell in the second inning, Colton Cowser broke a tie in the fifth with an RBI single and the Orioles didn\u2019t let up in a 7-3 victory over the Mets before an announced Game 2 crowd of 17,961 at Camden Yards.<\/p>\n
Tomoyuki Sugano was down 2-0 in the first inning and lost a lead in the fourth, but he earned his first win since June 3 \u2013 also his most recent quality start and the last time he got through the sixth. Fans stood to cheer as he walked back to the dugout after 99 pitches.<\/p>\n
A bullpen that lost Bryan Baker to this morning\u2019s trade with the Rays tossed three scoreless innings in a combined effort from Andrew Kittredge, Gregory Soto and Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez.\u00a0Dom\u00ednguez allowed the only two baserunners.<\/p>\n
Duel victories improved the Orioles to 42-50, their first time being eight games below .500 since May 6. Their last doubleheader sweep was June 25, 2016 against the Rays. Kevin Gausman and Oliver Drake combined on a shutout in Game 1 and T.J. McFarland recorded the win in Game 2 after relieving Chris Tillman.<\/p>\n
The Orioles snapped a streak of 29 consecutive doubleheaders without a sweep, the longest since the Braves failed in 31 tries from 1972-74, per the Elias Sports Bureau. And they returned to the clubhouse, filled with celebratory smoke, six game behind for the last Wild Card. It later became 6 1\/2.<\/p>\n
“We obviously faced a pretty good team today, and we won,” Sugano said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai. “In the past month or so, we\u2019ve been playing really well. I still believe strongly that this team has a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
“You guys don\u2019t want to hear it, but there\u2019s still time, and despite making a move this morning,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “And I\u2019m sure our obituary was probably getting written somewhere this morning because we made a trade.”<\/p>\n
Sugano registered an 8.87 ERA and 2.149 WHIP in his last five outings before today. His seventh quality start broke a tie with Zach Eflin for the team lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous pitcher,” said catcher Alex Jackson. “His execution, the way he moves the ball around, what he\u2019s trying to accomplish, and he sticks to his plan. And he goes out there and competes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some changes were made in Sugano’s delivery that included weight distribution, and his velocity increased.<\/p>\n
“Making sure all the pitches go down. That’s something I had in mind throughout the game,” Sugano said. “Constant communication with Frenchy (Drew French) and the coaching staff definitely helped me get to where I am today.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t been hit like this throughout my career. But I just made sure I don’t doubt myself and stay confident with what I have.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sharp, it was firm,” Mansolino said. “The fastball ticked up. It had life. It sounded heavy when the catcher was catching it. The number on the board was three ticks up. A lot of 95s, I saw. I saw 96 at one point.<\/p>\n
“Tomo\u2019s making adjustments. We\u2019ve talked about that. The league has adjusted to him and he’s got to kind of adjust back. That\u2019s a heck of a lineup he kind of rolled through right there, the top five guys. We\u2019re proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sugano’s family attended the game after switching their travel plans following yesterday’s rainout.<\/p>\n
“I obviously want to pitch well and do well for this game,” he said, “so yeah, for sure, it was motivating.”<\/p>\n
The Orioles are starting Dean Kremer, Trevor Rogers and Brandon Young in the weekend series against the Marlins, who counter with Edward Cabrera, Janson Junk and Eury\u00a0P\u00e9rez. Sugano can rest through the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where he lines up right now. There\u2019s a couple of different spots kind of discussed with him,” Mansolino said. “The pitching group, we\u2019ll all sit down and kind of navigate, get player input, see where things should go. You\u2019ve got guys going out on rehab and all that stuff, coming Sunday, too. There\u2019s a lot of moving pieces there.<\/p>\n
“Really happy for Tomo. He\u2019s a really successful and proud player who\u2019s done incredible things in his career and the way the last month went if probably the first time in his career he\u2019s ever gone through that, so to see him come out on top against a playoff-caliber team, a team that\u2019s a half-game out of the NL East, or whatever it is, a pretty tough division, is something he should have a lot of pride in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gunnar Henderson singled off reliever Justin Hagenman in the fifth, Ram\u00f3n Laureano walked and Cowser singled into center field to snap a 3-3 tie. Another run scored when third baseman Brett Baty misplayed Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas\u2019 bouncer.<\/p>\n
Waddell was the Mets\u2019 opener in his first major league start out of 20 appearances, including one inning with the Orioles in 2021. He loaded the bases in the first inning, with shortstop Francisco Lindor extending the jam by making a late underhand toss to second base on an attempted force with two outs. Cowser lined to first baseman Pete Alonso, but Waddell threw 32 pitches and got smacked around in the second.<\/p>\n
Cedric Mullins and Alex Jackson doubled with one out\u00a0\u2013 the new backup catcher collecting his first hit and RBI with the Orioles in his first at-bat \u2013 and Westburg launched a slider 413 feet to left field at 110 mph for his 10th home run and a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
Jackson doubled again leading off the sixth and scored with one out on Westburg\u2019s sharp ground ball that Lindor fielded, making a slick backhand stop of a 104.9 mph scorcher, before a late throw to the plate. Westburg scored when Laureano beat out a possible double play ball, pushing the advantage to 7-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always nice,” Jackson said of his contributions. “Anytime you can put the ball in play and help the team win, it\u2019s that cherry on top. It\u2019s definitely super nice to be able to barrel up some balls and get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sugano got in immediate trouble but retired nine in a row after Lindor\u2019s double with no outs in the first. Juan Soto had an RBI grounder and Alonso a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
Soto drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and stole second base. Jeff McNeill walked with one out, Sugano went cutter\/sweeper\/four-seam fastball to strike out Mark Vientos, and Baty lined a game-tying single into right-center.<\/p>\n
Sugano stranded two runners in the fifth and retired the side in order in the sixth.<\/p>\n
“The fellas went out and played, man, and they had energy,” Mansolino said. “It was a really good day.”<\/p>\n
* The Orioles recalled reliever Colin Selby from Triple-A Norfolk before Game 2 and optioned catcher David Ba\u00f1uelos.<\/p>\n
* Norfolk’s Chayce McDermott was charged with one earned run and two total in 5 1\/3 innings in Jacksonville but came out of Game 1 of a doubleheader with right elbow discomfort. He walked one and struck out six.<\/p>\n
Cionel P\u00e9rez let an inherited runner score and was charged with two runs in two-thirds of an inning. He allowed three hits, walked a batter and struck out two.<\/p>\n
* The Orioles won\u2019t have a representative in the All-Star Home Run Derby. The participants are Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Byron Buxton, Junior Caminero, Oneil Cruz, Cal Raleigh, Brent Rooker, James Wood and Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day that began with the Orioles making a seller move concluded with a doubleheader sweep that could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[15758,5,1125,581,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,125,579,578,775,12642],"class_list":{"0":"post-167307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-alex-jackson","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-colton-cowser","11":"tag-jordan-westburg","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkmets","18":"tag-orioles","19":"tag-orioles-featured","20":"tag-roch-kubatko","21":"tag-tomoyuki-sugano","22":"tag-tony-mansolino"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114832500604950049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}