Grayson shines in homecoming start, leads O's to 60th win

ARLINGTON -- As Grayson Rodriguez jogged onto the diamond at Globe Life Field on Saturday night, the 24-year-old couldn’t help but reflect. A native of Nacogdoches, Texas, the Orioles' right-hander made his MLB debut in front of swaths of his friends and family members at the Arlington-based ballpark on April 5, 2023.

“Obviously, where it started. Pretty cool,” Rodriguez said. “It feels like so long ago.”

It had only been 472 days. But during that time, Rodriguez has developed into a promising big league pitcher. He flashed his potential on his debut day -- allowing two runs in five innings and holding his own in a head-to-head matchup with Jacob deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner -- and he demonstrated his maturation in his Saturday return.

Rodriguez earned a win in his home state for the first time, outdueling three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer in Baltimore’s 8-4 victory over Texas. Rodriguez allowed two runs and racked up eight strikeouts over six innings in a 103-pitch outing.

The Orioles (60-38) became the first AL team to reach 60 wins this year and extended their AL East lead over the Yankees (59-41) to two games. Only the Phillies (62-36) have more wins in MLB.

The winning pitcher in 20 percent of Baltimore’s victories has been Rodriguez, who now leads the AL with 12 wins. The righty ranks second in MLB behind only Atlanta’s Chris Sale (13), and he’s the first O’s pitcher with 12 through his first 18 outings of a season since Sidney Ponson also had 12 through his first 18 starts in 2003.

“Wins are great. As long as the team is being able to win games, I think that’s the most important thing,” said Rodriguez, who lowered his ERA to 3.83. “You go out there every five days, six days, and give your team a chance to win.”

At first, it seemed like Rodriguez may not last long enough to earn a win on Saturday. He needed 54 pitches to navigate the first two innings, with the Rangers fouling off 15 of those offerings. Texas had three hits during the second, including Andrew Knizner’s two-run, two-out single.

That ended up being the only damage incurred against Rodriguez, who retired 13 of the final 14 Texas batters he faced and worked around a two-out walk to Leody Taveras in the fourth. He threw 49 pitches over his final four frames.

Rodriguez struck out the side in his sixth and final inning, setting down Josh Smith, Wyatt Langford and Adolis García, all swinging. The O’s fans in attendance -- plenty of whom were friends and family of Rodriguez -- cheered upon his exit.

“As the game went on, I thought the fastball got even better, and he stepped on a bunch to get a lot of outs,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He made some adjustments during the game there. I thought the pitch mix changed a little bit, got a little bit more aggressive. He’s got such a good fastball. He was getting it by guys.”

Of the 17 whiffs induced by Rodriguez, 13 came from his four-seam fastball, the most he’s had in any of his 41 career starts. His previous best was 12 on May 28 vs. the Red Sox.

Baltimore provided Rodriguez with enough run support, starting with a four-run second against Scherzer. Ramón Urías hit a two-run single and Anthony Santander added an RBI knock, then Scherzer departed prior to the third due to arm fatigue after throwing 53 pitches.

Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn and Jordan Westburg -- a native of New Braunfels, Texas -- later homered for the Orioles, who have an MLB-best 156 long balls. They now have an MLB-high eight players with at least 10 homers, matching the most they’ve had through 98 games in club history (also in 2000).

It hasn’t taken a ton of offense, though, for the O’s to win behind Rodriguez, who has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 14 of his 18 starts (and two or fewer in 13).

“He came out after [the second inning] doing what he does,” said Urías, who recorded a season-high three hits. “I’m really happy for him, and for the improvement that he has done.”

Rodriguez has shown a lot of that over the past 17 1/2 months. The 2018 first-round Draft pick mostly struggled in his first big league stint (a 7.35 ERA in 10 starts), then was dominant when he returned in the second half of last season (a 2.58 ERA in 13 outings).

The success has carried over into 2024, as Rodriguez credits the experience as the primary reason for him continuing to take steps closer to becoming a top-tier MLB starting pitcher.

“It’s just really pitching to big league hitters. There’s nothing like big league hitters,” Rodriguez said. “Taking each start, the positives and negatives from them, 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.”