ARLINGTON -- On April 5, 2023, Grayson Rodriguez made his MLB debut at Globe Life Field. The Orioles' right-hander took the mound at the ballpark located in Arlington -- roughly 180 miles northwest of his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas -- and held his own in a pitching matchup against Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner.

Rodriguez, who allowed two runs in five innings in his first big league start, returned to that mound 472 days later and showed the strides he’s made over his first year-plus in the Majors.

On Saturday night, 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 to pick up his American League-leading 12th win of the season and lower his ERA to 3.83 in 18 starts.

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.

Rodriguez yielded three hits, all coming in the second. After Andrew Knizner’s two-run single that inning, Rodriguez retired 13 of the final 14 Rangers batters he faced. The 24-year-old struck out the side in his sixth and final frame, setting down Josh Smith, Wyatt Langford and Adolis García, all swinging.

Baltimore handed Rodriguez an early lead with a four-run second against Scherzer, which featured a two-run single by Ramón Urías and an RBI knock from Anthony Santander. Scherzer was replaced to start the third after throwing only 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).