DENVER – Years of pitching stardom in Japan have led Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano to his current challenge: Make an impact in a difficult pitching environment while lifting a mostly young club.
Sugano, in his second year in the Majors and first in Colorado, further established himself as a leader with 5 2/3 strong innings in an 8-3 victory over the Padres on Wednesday night at Coors Field.
By holding the Padres to one run on five hits, with four strikeouts, Sugano yielded fewer than three runs for the fourth time in five starts and went into the sixth inning for the third time.
While pitching for the famed Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, Sugano won three Nippon Professional Baseball most valuable player awards, plus twice was named the league’s pitcher of the year. Last year, he joined the Orioles and went 10-10 with a 4.64 ERA in 30 starts. He was homer-prone, yielding 33.
The Rockies figured that even if there are homers – he has yielded five this season – Sugano has what they believe is important. His six-pitch mix, led by a split-finger that induced five of the Padres’ seven swings and misses against him, stops him from becoming predictable. And Sugano has not walked more than two in a game. His only walk came at the end of Ramón Laureano’s nine-pitch plate appearance to open the game.
Down 1-0, the Rockies backed Sugano with a four-run, six-hit second inning – a welcome output after the team endured just the fourth home 1-0 loss in its history on Tuesday night.