ARLINGTON, Texas — Grayson Rodriguez is back in the heart of Texas, but he’s a much better pitcher than he was the last time he was at Globe Life Field.
Rodriguez, a Nacogdoches native, made his MLB debut at the Rangers’ home ballpark last April as dozens of family and friends made the three-hour drive from his hometown. That start went well, but his first taste of the big leagues largely didn’t as he was sent back to the minors with a 7.35 ERA through 10 outings.
Since his return, though, Rodriguez has lived up to the hype that made him one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. In his first start back where his MLB career began, the 24-year-old displayed the growth he’s gone through in the 472 days since.
Rodriguez pitched six innings of two-run ball to help lead the Orioles to an 8-4 win over the Rangers for Baltimore’s third straight triumph. The win, Rodriguez’s first in his home state, is his American League-leading 12th this season.
“Any time I can pitch in the state of Texas is pretty special,” Rodriguez said. “I have a lot of friends and family that come and were able to make it. They don’t get to make the trip up to Baltimore a whole lot, so any time I can pitch in front of them, it’s pretty special, no matter the outcome.”
Rodriguez said his debut “feels like so long ago.” In the 15 months since, he’s learned to better command his blazing fastball and understand how to work his offspeed pitches off his heater. The flamethrower rejoined the Orioles to begin the second half last year and has been perhaps one of the best starters in baseball since.
His 3.31 ERA across his past 31 starts ranks 11th among qualified starters, while his 17 wins are tied with Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.
“I don’t even know if I could put that in a sentence,” Rodriguez said when asked to detail how much he’s grown since his debut April 5. “It’s just really pitching to big league hitters. There’s nothing like big league hitters. Taking each start, the positives and negatives from ‘em, moving on, being able to flush bad starts, being able to extend a streak of good starts. Yeah, I think there’s a lot that’s been learned in a little over a year.”
Baltimore’s bats backed Rodriguez (12-4) and bashed the Rangers for a second consecutive night to put the Orioles in position to sweep the team that knocked them out of the postseason in the AL Division Series last year. After scoring four runs in Friday’s first inning off Nathan Eovaldi, the Orioles tagged ace Max Scherzer with four runs in the second.
Cedric Mullins, Jordan Westburg and Ryan O’Hearn all homered after the club belted four long balls Friday, while Ramón Urías and Anthony Santander each recorded run-scoring singles in the second. The Orioles recorded 12 hits and walked a season-high nine times.
“I did think the at-bats were good,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We walked a bunch. … We left a lot of runners out there, but nice to get so much traffic and make the pitchers work the way they did.”
Baltimore has scored 17 runs in two games to begin the second half after the offense entered the All-Star break slumping. The Orioles won only nine of their final 22 games of the first half — the club’s worst stretch in more than two years — largely because of an inconsistent offense that struggled mightily in high-leverage situations. They averaged only 2.92 runs per game across their final 13 contests, of which they won only five.
The last time the Orioles scored eight or more runs in consecutive wins was in late March when they tallied 24 to begin the season with two victories over the Los Angeles Angels.
“We all needed that break,” said Urías, who smacked a trio of singles for his first three-hit game of the season. “Everybody looks different now. It’s a fresh start, and we’re doing well.
“It was just a matter of time.”
Jacob Webb, Cionel Pérez, Yennier Cano and Craig Kimbrel followed Rodriguez to cover the game’s final three innings. The Rangers scored two runs off Cano (both charged to Pérez) in the eighth to reduce the Orioles’ advantage to three runs, but Kimbrel pitched a scoreless ninth in his first outing since his blown save Sunday.
Baltimore is 60-38 and improves its lead atop the AL East to two games over the Yankees (59-41), who lost, 9-1, to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier Saturday. The Orioles were also 60-38 through 98 games last season, eventually winning 101.
After scoring all nine of their runs on homers Friday, the Orioles’ first Saturday crossed the plate on a throwing error from Scherzer after a bunt single by Mullins. Urías then lined a two-run single up the middle, while Santander, who homered twice Friday, drove in Urías with a single to right field. Scherzer left the game following the second inning after feeling arm fatigue, leaving his bullpen to cover the final seven frames. The 39-year-old three-time Cy Young Award winner has a 3.99 ERA in six starts this season after missing time with back, thumb and forearm injuries.
Mullins’ solo shot in the third continued his recent strong play after a brutal slump earlier this spring. The center fielder was hitting .170 with a .522 OPS on June 8. In 32 games since, he’s hit .301 with a .858 OPS. His long ball was his 10th this season to give the Orioles an MLB-high eight players in double digits.
Westburg, a New Braunfels native who grew up idolizing Rangers players like Michael Young, then launched a 424-foot solo homer in the sixth to put Baltimore up 7-2. He was one of five players who represented the Orioles at the All-Star Game, also in Arlington, earlier this week.
In the seventh, O’Hearn was hit by a 95 mph fastball on his left knee, but he stayed in the game. In his next plate appearance, the left-handed slugger belted an opposite-field home run off José Leclerc for the Orioles’ final run. O’Hearn ended his night 1-for-2 with two walks, two hit-by-pitches and his 12th homer of the season.
“That deserves a gold star,” Hyde said.
Rodriguez’s pitch count was up early, and the Rangers (46-52), whom the Orioles are 5-1 against this year, cut their deficit in half on Andrew Knizner’s two-run single. But the Orioles’ No. 2 starter buckled down from there, retiring 13 of the final 14 he faced, including striking out the side in the sixth. He allowed only three hits and two walks while punching out eight to bounce back from a rough final start of the first half in which he allowed eight runs in five innings versus the Yankees.
“I thought he got better as the game went on,” Hyde said.
Perhaps the exciting part about Rodriguez is he’s far from a finished product. His start Saturday wasn’t his first against the Rangers since his debut. Rodriguez started Game 2 of the ALDS and was lambasted for five runs in 1 2/3 innings by a powerful and patient Texas offense that later won the World Series.
Hyde is confident his youngster is on the right path to be better for his next postseason start.
“He’s really learning how to pitch here,” Hyde said. “Not just throwing the ball because the catcher calls a pitch, but understanding the details and the art of pitching.”
Orioles at Rangers
Sunday, 2:35 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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