Tomoyuki Sugano made his 20^th major league start today, unsure whether No. 21 will come with the Orioles.

Sugano is a trade possibility with the deadline four days away. He didn’t treat this afternoon’s game as an audition for scouts. He wanted to give the Orioles a chance to win the series, the job he’s paid to perform. What happens next will reveal itself later.

Dylan Carlson moved the Orioles ahead in the second inning with a two-run single, Tyler O’Neill homered for the third day in a row, and Sugano tied his major league high with eight strikeouts in a 5-1 victory over the Rockies before an announced crowd of 16,407 at Camden Yards.

Sugano held the Rockies to one run and four hits in six innings for his eighth quality start, and the Orioles are 47-58 with the first-place Blue Jays coming to town.

O’Neill’s two-run shot off Austin Gomber in the third traveled 433 feet to left field. His home run total has grown to six, with good health allowing him to get extra work in the cage and fix his swing.

This is the first time that O’Neill homered in three straight games since Sept. 24-25, 2021 with the Cardinals. The first two came in a doubleheader.

“Because of health and not being on the field, this is probably the right time you expect him to get going," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "This is May 1, end of April, and he gets hot. Look at it that way, and he’s getting a month’s amount of at-bats. Now he’s getting going. We saw him last year. You guys all remember the home run he hit off (Keegan) Akin in Boston. I think it was 30-something at that point. I think this is what we thought. He just hasn’t been healthy.”

"We knew he could do it," said Gunnar Henderson. "Faced him a bunch last year, and he hit a lot of homers against us last year. We knew it was only a matter of time, just getting on the field and getting reps, and that was, I feel like, the biggest thing, was just getting out there."

Henderson singled and stole second base before O’Neill spanked a four-seam fastball and improved his OPS to .725.

Cedric Mullins drew a one-out walk in the second and moved to third base on Coby Mayo’s 106.1 mph double to left field. Both runners scored on Carlson’s single to wipe out a 1-0 deficit.

Mayo has a hit in four of his last five games, including a home run last night coming off the bench. He went 5-for-13 in his last four games in June. The work with hitting coaches and some minor adjustments, including moving back a few inches in the box, are leading to better production with sporadic playing time.

“I’m just trying to stay on my back side a little bit longer," he said. "Not try to jump so much at the ball sometimes. I think I get into trouble when I do that, and I think I’m seeing the ball a little bit better. Making better swing decisions. Just a little bit of that contributes a lot.”

"Continued optimism and excitement about Coby," Mansolino said. "I talked about it this morning. He's making a real adjustment. I don't know if you guys have figured it out. If you watch close enough, you'll know what he's doing. It's pretty obvious. You see a player make an adjustment, a young player, credit to our hitting coaches for doing it and kind of getting him in there and making the adjustment. And you start to see him climb up and do better, again, it's something you want to believe in as a coach.

"When you see players that maybe have a flaw in their mechanics, you know, it's the same swing, same delivery, and then the results are better, you're always kind of, 'Well, let's wait and see.' But when you see guys make changes, which is the natural evolution of being a young major league player — they make changes and then results follow — it gives the coaching room a lot of excitement and a lot of belief."

The comfort that Mayo exudes also is evident at first base.

"We’ve all seen it," Henderson said. "It was just a matter of getting out there and him catching his breath, in a sense, out there. It’s been really fun watching him."

The start of the game was 28 minutes late due to the threat of rain. That’s three consecutive Sundays with delays. What’s the forecast for Chicago next weekend?

Sugano put two runners on base after retiring the first two batters in the opening inning. Jordan Beck drew a four-pitch walk, but Thairo Estrada swung at the next one and grounded to the mound.

Warming Bernabel homered in his second major league game, a solo shot in the second inning to give Colorado a 1-0 lead, but Sugano strung together four more scoreless frames. He escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fifth by striking out Mickey Moniak and retired the side in order in the sixth, striking out the last two batters.

Sugano's side work seems more focused on conditioning.

"Made some adjustments in the training," he said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai, "but usually every summer my feeling gets better, so I think that’s where it’s coming from." 

The deadline arrives before Sugano’s next turn. If he stays, he probably pitches again Saturday at Wrigley Field. Trevor Rogers is expected to start Friday afternoon.

"It’s obviously my first time," he said. "I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just look at it day-by-day and work on the things that are in front of me.

"I’ve experienced good times and bad times, especially the past month. June, I went through some struggles, but I can overcome that moving forward." 

The Orioles spent $13 million to bring one of Japan's iconic pitchers to the United States and the results match how Sugano described them - good and bad. He's fit in from the start and at times pitched like an ace.

"Players love him," Mansolino said. "He is so well liked in that room. The players mess around with him, he messes around with his teammates. He's done it very gracefully.

"We need him. He's one of our five starters. When Sugano throws the ball well, he gives us a chance to win, and we need to win games. That's the most important thing to us in Baltimore."

"It’s been awesome watching," Henderson said, "because he was unreal over in Japan, and just kind of being able to see how he goes about his business here has been really cool and really awesome to watch."

Sugano was removed from today's game after 91 pitches. Yennier Cano walked two batters in the seventh and stranded them. Andrew Kittredge gave up a leadoff single in the eighth and nothing else, striking out his last two batters.

Seranthony Domínguez handled closer duties but lost his save opportunity when Henderson scored from second base on a wild pitch. Reliever Jaden Hill was late covering home plate and catcher Austin Nola didn't hustle to the backstop.

"Yeah, obviously, running hard to third," Henderson said, "and then I saw where the ball kind of stopped at that brick wall behind home,. It’ll sometimes kick off, but it was kind of dead in there and then the pitcher was not covering home, so I felt like I was going to beat him there and I end up did."

“You don’t see people doing that," Mansolino said. "He plays every day. He had an off-day the other day, but he’s playing every day. It’s almost August. He’s out there at shortstop. It’s like 120 degrees on the field. You guys feel it up there, I’m sure, in the box. To do what he did and when you’re already winning by three runs, that’s really strange and unusual. Those are the types of players I want my kids to watch.”

* Ryan Mountcastle has doubled twice today as the designated hitter for Triple-A Norfolk.

Emmanuel Rivera had four hits last night and three today, including his first home run. He collected a hit in 10 consecutive at-bats.

Thaddeus Ward tossed five scoreless innings. Cionel Pérez replaced him in the sixth and allowed one run and two hits with a walk and strikeout.