Tomoyuki Sugano pitched seven strong innings as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the host Seattle Mariners 5-1 on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series.
Colton Cowser homered for Baltimore, which won its fourth consecutive game and prevailed for the seventh time in its past nine.
Rowdy Tellez went deep for the Mariners, who fell a half-game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West.
Sugano (5-3), a right-hander, allowed one run on five hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
The only mistake Sugano made came with two outs in the second inning, when Tellez launched a 1-0 curveball that stayed over the middle of the plate 404 feet off the windows of Hit It Here Cafe on the second deck in right field at T-Mobile Park to tie the score at 1-1.
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the first as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn singled with one out to load the bases and Ramon Urias lifted a sacrifice fly to right field.
Baltimore regained the lead in similar fashion in the fifth as Rutschman, Henderson and O’Hearn all singled, the latter bringing home the run.
The inning ended with a scare as Urias lined a ball right back at the face of Mariners starter George Kirby (0-3). The righty got his pitching hand up to slightly deflect the ball before it hit him in the mouth. The ball ricocheted to first baseman Tellez, who stepped on the bag to end the inning. Kirby was bleeding from the mouth as he walked off the field.
After the game, Kirby had a bruised and cut upper lip but said he was all right.
Kirby, making just his third start after beginning the season on the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder, went five innings and gave up two runs on eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
Cowser led off the sixth with a drive into the Mariners’ bullpen in left-center off Eduard Bazardo to make it 3-1.
The Orioles added a pair of insurance runs off Collin Snider in the ninth. Coby Mayo led off with a single and Heston Kjerstad lined an RBI double to right. With one out, Jackson Holliday lined a single to center to plate the game’s final run.
–Field Level Media
