DENVER -- Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano didn’t need much help Friday night, although he could have used a little.
Sugano threw six efficient innings, holding the Padres to two solo home runs and four hits total. The Rockies, though, could manage little against San Diego pitching and they lost, 5-2, on a walk-off homer for the second straight night, this one by Gavin Sheets off Juan Mejia.
Thursday night’s 7-3 Padres victory ended on Xander Bogaert’s 12th-inning grand slam.
But three starts into this one-year, $5.1 million contract, in his second year in the Majors after 12 as a star for Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants in Japan, Sugano is performing as an example and a leader for a club in its growing stage. Sugano was efficient Friday: 81 pitches, 52 strikes. He struck out three, never faced more than one baserunner at any point and now carries a 2.16 ERA.
Only homers by Sheets on a cutter to lead off the sixth and Luis Campusano on a splitter two batters later prevented him from winning -- along with the lack of run support.
Yes, the homers are similar to last season, when he gave up an American League-high 33 with the Orioles. Of the last 16 earned runs charged to him, 15 have come as a direct result of home runs. But Sugano overall has limited runs with the Rockies through three starts, and last year he had three-start spans of ERAs of 1.47 (April 28-May 9) and 1.04 (Aug. 8-19).
“Solo homers, they’re all right,” Sugano said through his interpreter, Yuto Sakurai. “I’m attacking the zone with strikes. Getting ahead, that’s what the team expects from me. I need to continue.”
Late pinch-hit RBIs from Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck tied the game in the eighth, only for Sheets to end it with his second homer of the night.
“Sugano continued to be good for us tonight,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “The split was working really well. He pounded the strike zone, stayed out of the middle. Just a couple of mistakes.
“When you throw strikes, you’re usually efficient and Sugano attacks the strike zone. He’s done it in at least the first three outings [with the Rockies], and he’s done it his whole life.”
Sugano’s performance Friday was a step up in consistency from his previous start, when he struck out five and held the Phillies to one run (on Adolis Garcia’s solo homer) in six innings of a win at Coors Field. In that one, Sugano struggled to find the feel for his split-finger pitch early in the contest, but had it working later in the game.
The team outside of Sugano is one looking for consistency. The offense ignited during a four-game win streak that finished the recent homestand, but runs have been tough to come by in San Diego.
It helps to have Sugano’s calm, consistent personality and credibility based on his age and career.
“Guys do come up to me and we have chats,” he said. “It’s not only about pitching. I want to build a relationship outside of the space of baseball.”