Even the most exciting week of the Orioles’ season is being spoiled by injuries.
Before their exhilarating walk-off wins over the Los Angeles Dodgers the past two nights, an Orioles player exited each game early with an injury — starting pitcher Dean Kremer on Friday and catcher Samuel Basallo on Saturday.
It happened again Sunday.
Starting pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano was hit on his right foot with a hard ground ball in the fourth inning and exited the game. The severity of Sugano’s injury, which the Orioles announced as right foot discomfort, is unknown.
After Sugano fell to the ground, Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino, team interpreter Yuto Sakurai and a member of Baltimore’s athletic training staff tended to the 35-year-old right-hander. It appeared Sugano had a difficult time putting weight on his right foot — the one he uses to push off the mound — and he walked back to the dugout without testing it with a warmup pitch.
Left-hander Grant Wolfram entered to replace Sugano with no outs and two runners on in the fourth and the Dodgers leading 3-0. Before his exit, Sugano allowed three solo homers in the first three innings — two to fellow Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani and another to Mookie Betts.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
