NEW YORK – Tomoyuki Sugano’s future is up in the air with free agency approaching for the first time in the U.S.
Fewer fly balls might prolong his career, wherever he’s pitching next year.
Sugano surrendered three more home runs today and they came in the first two innings. Aaron Judge hit his 53rd, Giancarlo Stanton his 24th and third in two games, and Ryan McMahon his 20th. No one has allowed more in the American League.
The solo shots led the Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 46,085 in the penultimate game of the regular season.
The Orioles are 75-86 and assured of a last-place finish in the division. They can’t nudge the Rays out of fourth place.
The club record for most home runs from a pitcher in a season is 41 by Dylan Bundy in 2018. Jeremy Guthrie, Scott McGregor, Sidney Ponson and Robin Roberts are tied with 35. Sugano can put away the glove after opponents hit 12 over his last six starts.
Judge launched a sweeper after Sugano retired the first two batters in the first inning. He was 6-for-7 with two homers against Sugano before today.
Stanton led off the second by sending a fastball 427 feet at 110.2 mph, a typical jaw-dropping demolition. McMahon barreled a splitter with two outs, his ball traveling 401 feet at 108.1 mph.
Bases were circled much the same way that the Orioles’ season went down the drain.
Stanton's 453rd career home run broke a tie with Carl Yastrzemski for 40th place on the all-time list.
Sugano was charged with four runs and five hits in 4 1/3 innings and finished the season with a 4.64 ERA and 1.33 WHIP. Grant Wolfram let an inherited runner score in the fifth, and two of his own, after walking his first two batters to load the bases. Sugano came within three homers of tying Yusei Kikuchi in 2019 for most by a rookie in the majors.
No one on the club made more starts than Sugano’s 30, and his 157 innings are second to Dean Kremer’s 170 1/3.
Familiarity wasn’t doing Sugano any favors today. He faced the Yankees four times, including the most recent start before today, when he tied his season low with only three innings.
Judge had a two-run single off Wolfram, recalled earlier today, after plate umpire Ramon De Jesus ejected Yankees manager Aaron Boone for arguing a strike call. Cody Bellinger’s fly ball increased the lead to 6-0.
Stanton walked and Wolfram nailed Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the left forearm, forcing him out of the game. X-rays were negative but he will undergo a CT scan.
Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler didn’t allow a hit until Gunnar Henderson doubled with one out in the fourth inning. He drilled Jeremiah Jackson and Coby Mayo in the fifth, sandwiched around two strikeouts, and earned a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Blake.
Tyler O’Neill singled with two outs in the sixth to give the Orioles their second hit of the afternoon.
Schlittler blanked the Orioles on two hits in seven innings and Mayo greeted Paul Blackburn in the eighth with a first-pitch home run, his 11th of the season. Mayo is 17-for-43 (.395) with four homers in his last 14 games with an at-bat.