DENVER -- The Coors Field crowd stood and cheered in a possible -- maybe probable -- goodbye to Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano after his 6 2/3 strong innings in a 3-1 victory over the Royals on Friday night.
Sugano spoke in Japanese through interpreter Yuto Sakurai in appreciation of a message from the fans that transcended language. With the Trade Deadline coming Monday at 4 p.m. MT, Sugano is a prime candidate to be sent elsewhere for talent the Rockies need in their rebuild.
“It’s a special moment for me, given the circumstances,” Sugano said. “I feel really happy that I came to the Colorado Rockies.”
Friday’s outing served as a summary of what he has given the Rockies since signing for one year and $5.1 million just before Spring Training -- not to mention a showcase for contending clubs wanting to improve their starting pitching.
Sugano’s time with the Yomiuri Giants marked 12 of the greatest pitching seasons in Japanese baseball history. He joined the Majors with the Orioles last year, then proved that Coors can be conquered (7-2, 3.78 in nine home starts).
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Here’s how:
Strike-throwing
It’s a simple strategy: attack the zone. Of his 83 pitches, 52 were strikes. He forced nine ground ball outs.
“I saw more of the same that he’s been showing us all year, pretty much -- just fastball command,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “The split was really good. [He showed] the ability to keep the other team off-balance, the ability to make an in-game adjustment -- when they apparently started sitting soft, then he would go with the heater late.
“He’s been doing it for a long time and it shows.”
Strategy
Sugano, 36, humbly credited Schaeffer and his pitching coach, Alon Leichman, and the Rockies’ staff, saying it’s a “combined effort.” For the strategic changes, he pointed to catcher Hunter Goodman.
“I was able to pound the strike zone with the splitter, get swings and misses,” Sugano said. “I think Goody saw something that I didn’t see. He called a good game, and it worked all around.”
The Royals never caught up or caught on.
“He's locating, he's mixing the ball up,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He didn't make many mistakes, he kept the ball down. He pitched backwards -- used his cutter, his split. It was pretty much what we expected; he just kept the ball off the barrel."
Fearlessness
The outing was typical Sugano, but one feature of his outings was missing until the sixth: the home run.
Finally, Carter Jensen got that out of the way in the sixth for the only run off him. Of the 21 homers he has yielded this year, 18 were with the bases empty.
It’s the homers, though, that allow Sugano to highlight his savvy. They don’t scare him out of the strike zone.
“Efficiency,” said center fielder Brenton Doyle, who celebrated his first Major League game since May 19 (because of oblique and groin injuries) with an RBI double. “He [Sugano] was pounding the strike zone early, getting weak contact. That helped our offense, as well.”
Friday was Sugano’s seventh straight winning decision. In the likely event he has closed his Rockies book, he authored an impressive one.
He became the eighth pitcher in club history to earn seven straight winning decisions in a single season, the first since Kyle Freeland won eight straight in 2018. He joined Jason Jennings (2001-2002) and Jason Marquis as the only pitchers to reach 11 wins in their first 19 starts with the team, and the first with three straight quality starts at Coors since Freeland from June 11-July 18 of last season.
It was no small feat for Sugano to hold his quality against the backdrop of the Trade Deadline. He was such a star for such a perennial contender in Japan that a trade was out of the question.
“It’s out of my control, basically,” Sugano said. “So I just try my best each and every day.”