The pregame news for the Orioles wasn’t any better today than how they started out against the Angels.
Ryan O’Hearn was scratched from the lineup with left ankle soreness after homering last night and tying Cedric Mullins for the team lead. The Orioles returned outfielder Tyler O’Neill from his rehab assignment with Triple-A Norfolk because of recurring shoulder soreness. He received an injection in his AC joint and is shut down for about a week.
Tomoyuki Sugano walked the first batter he faced and Mike Trout hit the upper half of the left field foul pole with a sinker that missed the heart of the plate but not his bat. Keegan Akin surrendered a tie-breaking home run to Luis Rengifo leading off the sixth. The day seemed like it would be trashed.
Fortunately for the Orioles, tones can be set but also smashed.
Mullins and Gary Sánchez hit back-to-back home runs off left-hander Tyler Anderson in the bottom of the sixth and the Orioles hung on for a 6-5 win before an announced crowd of 26,313 at Camden Yards.
Jordan Westburg had two RBIs by the third inning, Félix Bautista notched his 14th save and second in less than 24 hours, and the Orioles moved to 11 games below .500 at 29-40. They’ll try for their third sweep in the last five series.
Bautista's sinker was clocked at 100 mph on Trout's fly ball.
Rengifo hit his second home run of the day in the eighth, a solo shot off Andrew Kittredge to narrow the margin. Zach Neto reached with two outs on a fielder’s choice and Adley Rutschman threw him out trying to steal.
Mullins’ 11th home run and Sánchez’s first came on changeups after Ramón Laureano’s leadoff walk, the sixth time this season that the Orioles went back-to-back. Sánchez was reinstated from the injured list today and had three hits in 32 at-bats before facing Anderson again. He was 0-for-18 against lefties.
"It felt good," Sánchez said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. "Even more so that we got the win. We got that win, we won the series. That’s important. It’s important for us to get these wins going forward."
Sánchez could offer a big assist if he gets hot.
"It's a presence when he steps in the box," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "He walks in there, he's got that big old leg kick and he gets that thing cranking and he swings through a pitch, it does not feel good if you’re on the other side, I promise that. Big home run, good to see him get some confidence. Look forward to seeing him tomorrow."
"He can definitely swing the bat," Mullins said. "It was encouraging to see him get his swing off today, put one over the wall, something that we expect out of him, of course. So yeah, continuing to get out there, get his at-bats, get comfortable. I think being around the team continues to increase his confidence up there, and I look forward to seeing what he does.”
The Orioles are 5-15 against left-handed starters, including openers, and were slashing .203/.280/.277 against southpaw pitchers before today.
Anderson brought reverse splits into the game, with left-handers hitting .280/.353/.587 and right-handers .221/.293/.367. Jackson Holliday stroked a left-on-left double leading off the bottom of the first and he scored on Westburg’s groundout. Gunnar Henderson had a left-on-left run-scoring single in the third. And Mullins cleared the center field fence in the sixth to erase a 4-3 deficit.
"It was good at-bats," Mansolino said. "Anderson’s good, man. He’s a tough pitcher in the league. We’ve seen him before. He’s given us fits before. We handled him good today.”
“Just continuing the fight," Mullins said. "I think today we stuck to our plan really well. We wanted to be aggressive because he was going to throw a lot of strikes early. It paid off. We put some good swings on the ball and we pulled a win out.”
Sugano didn’t have the usual command. He lasted 4 2/3 innings and allowed three runs and six hits with two walks and two hit batters. He nailed Jo Adell to load the bases with two outs in the fifth and the score tied, but Keegan Akin induced a grounder from pinch-hitter Scott Kingery.
Trout has 29 career home runs against the Orioles, his most against non-division opponents. He was slashing .282/.373/.608 in 76 games before today.
Zach Neto walked before Trout barreled the sinker at 109 mph and watched its flight like a golfer on the first tee. Sugano also gave up two singles in the inning but limited the damage.
A one-out walk to Trout and single by Taylor Ward in the third put Sugano in another bind. Logan O’Hoppe flied out and Westburg made a lunging backhand stab of Adell’s 104.8 mph liner.
The defense stayed busy in the fourth, when Sugano retired the side in order after Mullins ran down Lamonte Wade Jr.’s 394-foot fly ball at the center field fence and Christian Moore lined out to right at 105.7 mph. The Angels tied the game in the fifth on an infield single, hit batter and Ward’s double down the left field line with one out.
Sugano threw 80 pitches, 46 for strikes. The two walks tied his season high.
"Just minor things," he said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai, "but going over the season, there’s days like this."
These are back-to-back sub-par outings from Sugano, who allowed three earned runs (four total) and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings in Sacramento.
“There’s nothing that I’m personally worried," he said. "But obviously, there’s some stress on our bullpen guys, so that’s something I feel bad for.”
“He’s been a tick off," Mansolino said. "What that is I’m not quite sure. I think some of the pitches have been a little bit off the plate. Hasn’t been on the plate as much. There have been some kind of bad batted-ball luck here recently.
"It was kind of the ebb and flow of the season, but he gave us a chance to win, got us into the fifth, had the lead. I’ll take it.”
Rutschman reached on a two-out infield single in the third, moved up on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on Henderson’s single. Henderson stole second base and came home on Westburg’s single to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
The day turned bad again and brightened. No rain and no regrets.
“In terms of how many games we have left and where we’re at right now, there’s going to be some losses mixed in there, of course," Mullins said, "but we continue to try for good stretches, put a couple streaks on the board and see where we’re at.”
"I have confidence in these guys, I have confidence in this group," Sánchez said. "Obviously, we didn’t start really well, but at the same time, we can flip the page and end on a really strong note. So I think that’s what we need to do, take it one day at a time, try to come back tomorrow and win tomorrow’s game and then continue going forward in that way."
* Coby Mayo doubled and singled for his first career multi-hit game
* Luis Vázquez made his Orioles debut as a pinch-runner for Sánchez in the eighth. The Orioles have used 47 players.
* O'Hearn was available to play if needed, according to Mansolino.
“Yesterday, the double play that (Zach) Neto hit into (in the seventh inning), it looks like Neto clipped O’Hearn’s foot," Mansolino said. "We checked it out in the moment. It was fine. Came in today, it was sore. My guess is that if this is September and we’re trying to win the pennant, he’s probably playing today. But I think with the idea that it’s still pretty early in the season, we want to take care of it.”