Tomoyuki Sugano of the Baltimore Orioles (36) earned his first Major League victory.
On the 6th (Korea time), Sugano started in a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, where he pitched 5⅓ innings, allowing 5 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 4 strikeouts, and 1 earned run to secure the win.
In the bottom of the first inning, Sugano retired the Kansas City top lineup of Jonathan India, Bobby Witt Jr., and Vinnie Pasquantino in order. In the second inning, he also retired the middle lineup of Salvador Perez, Michael Massey, and Hunter Renfroe in order.
In the fourth inning, Sugano again retired Pasquantino, Perez, and Massey in order. In the fifth inning, he faced a crisis with no outs and runners on first and second after allowing consecutive hits to leadoff batter Renfroe and MJ Melendez. However, he got Michael Garcia, Isbel, and India to ground out, preventing any runs.
In the sixth inning, Sugano allowed a solo home run to Witt Jr. He then gave up a hit to Pasquantino and struck out Perez, but hit Massey with a pitch. Sugano ultimately handed the mound over to Bryan Baker with the Orioles leading 6-1 and one out with runners on first and second. Baker induced a 5-4-3 double play against Renfroe to finish the inning without allowing additional runs. The Orioles won 8-1, and Sugano became the winning pitcher.
Sugano recorded 89 pitches, utilizing a variety of pitches including a splitter (23 pitches), sweeper (23 pitches), curve (14 pitches), cutter (13 pitches), four-seam fastball (12 pitches), and sinker (4 pitches) to combat the Kansas City lineup. His maximum velocity reached 93 mph (149.7 km/h). While the proportion of four-seam fastballs was not high, it was this very factor that enhanced its effectiveness, reaching a swing-and-miss rate of 67%.
Sugano is one of the top aces in Japanese professional baseball, having recorded a career total of 276 games (1,857 innings), 136 wins, 74 losses, and an earned run average of 2.43. After exploring the possibility of entering the Major League through posting following the 2020 season, he ultimately stayed in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only succeeded in entering the Major League this past winter when he signed a one-year contract worth $13 million (approximately 19 billion won) with the Baltimore Orioles.
After making his Major League debut against Toronto on the 31st of last month, where he pitched 4 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, and 2 earned runs, Sugano secured his first Major League victory just two games into his career.
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