Baltimore Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, one of the best prospects in baseball, turned in the best start of his big-league career in his second matchup with the Detroit Tigers.
This time, Rodriguez tossed five scoreless innings on two hits and one walk with nine strikeouts. The Tigers scored four runs in the sixth inning but lost, 6-4, in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader at Comerica Park.
The Tigers (10-16) beat the Orioles, 7-4, in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Last week, Rodriguez threw five scoreless innings on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts against the Tigers.
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Left-hander Matthew Boyd, a nine-year MLB veteran, wasn’t as sharp as the Orioles’ youngster. The 32-year-old allowed six runs on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts across 5⅔ innings, throwing 66 of 102 pitches for strikes.
He crossed the century mark with two outs in the sixth inning, facing Ryan McKenna with a runner on first base. Gunnar Henderson drew a five-pitch walk, then McKenna drilled a fifth-pitch fastball for a two-run home run.
The homer put the Orioles ahead, 6-0, and chased Boyd from his fifth start of the season.
The Tigers showed life in the bottom of the sixth inning, responding with four runs off two relievers from the Orioles’ bullpen: left-hander Keegan Akin and right-hander Mike Baumann.
A walk from Zack Short and a single from Riley Greene put runners on the corners for Javier Báez. The Tigers scored their first run as a fielding error allowed Báez to reach safely.
That’s when the Orioles replaced Akin with Baumann.
Tyler Nevin, pinch-hitting for Nick Maton, drilled a three-run homer off Baumann’s fifth-pitch slider, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 6-4. The ball traveled 421 feet to straightaway center field, which was brought in from 422 feet over the offseason.
Gray-Rod’s day
The Orioles’ bullpen made the game interesting, but before Akin took the mound in the sixth inning, Game 2 of the doubleheader belonged to Rodriguez. He is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.
Rodriguez is the second-best pitching prospect, behind only Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Andrew Painter. The Orioles selected him No. 11 overall in the 2018 draft out of high school.
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Facing the Tigers, Rodriguez flashed 41 four-seam fastballs, 23 changeups, 12 curveballs, 10 cutters and five sliders. He generated 13 swings and misses, including eight with his changeup, and recorded 18 called strikes.
Rodriguez threw seven of his 12 curveballs for strikes: two whiffs, four called strikes and one foul.
The 23-year-old struck out the side in the third inning: Matt Vierling (changeup, swinging strike), Andy Ibáñez (fastball, swinging strike) and Zach McKinstry (changeup, swinging strike).
Rodriguez added two strikeouts in the fourth inning, taking down Greene (changeup, called strike) and Maton (curveball, swinging strike). He also had three strikeouts in the fifth inning against Eric Haase (curveball, called strike), Akil Baddoo (changeup, called strike) and Ibáñez (changeup, swinging strike).
Before Ibánez’s second strikeout, back-to-back hitters reached safely with two outs on Miguel Cabrera’s single and Vierling’s walk. But Rodriguez escaped the jam with his ninth strikeout to complete his fifth start.
Ibánez, called up from Triple-A Toledo before Saturday’s doubleheader, finished 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his first start.
Death by papercuts
The two-run homer from McKenna put the Tigers in a six-run hole in the sixth inning, but the Orioles put them behind 4-0 with a four-run second inning on five singles and a wild pitch.
One of those five hits had a 100 mph exit velocity.
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Three Orioles tagged Boyd with RBI singles: McKenna, Joey Ortiz and Austin Hays. The fourth run scored on a wild pitch. Boyd then retired 13 of the next 14 batters before Henderson’s two-out walk in the sixth inning.
The second inning started with back-to-back singles from Jorge Mateo and James McCann.
After McKenna’s homer, right-handed reliever José Cisnero completed the sixth inning. He returned to the mound and posted a scoreless seventh inning. Righties Jason Foley and Will Vest kept the Orioles from scoring in the eighth and ninth, respectively.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers powerless early in 6-4 loss to Orioles in Game 2