Tomoyuki Sugano stared down the beast that is Coors Field, never blinked, and came out a winner against the Phillies on Sunday.
The veteran right-hander, just the sixth Japanese-born player in Rockies history, had never pitched in LoDo before. Sure, he’d heard the horror stories, and he watched rotation-mate Michael Lorenzen get mauled for nine runs in three innings in Friday’s home opener.
But the 36-year-old Sugano took a been-there, done-that approach during his superb six innings in Colorado’s 4-1 victory that snapped a nine-game losing streak to Philly.
“I wasn’t thinking too much about the environment,” Sugano said through his interpreter, Yuto Sakurai. “I was just trying to keep the ball down and get groundouts, and punchouts when I can.”
The pitcher nicknamed “Sugar,” who signed a $5.1 million free-agent contract to come to Colorado, is just the second Japanese-born Rockies pitcher to make a start at Coors Field. The other was Masato Yoshii in 2000.
The Rockies were desperately searching for two things on Sunday: Not only a quality start from Sugano (the club’s first quality start of the season) but some thunder from their offense. Check, and double check.
Mickey Moniak hit two solo homers, and rookie TJ Rumfield launched a two-run rocket.
Making his second start for the Rockies, Sugano dazzled, giving up one run on just four hits, striking out five, and walking only one. He induced eight groundball outs, even though his splitter wasn’t working until late in his outing.
“He was huge for us today,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Any time you can get the ball on the ground at Coors Field, it’s a huge thing. When he does have his splitter, he should be even better.”
The right-hander’s one major mistake came in the second inning on a 3-2 pitch to Adolis Garcia, who sent Sugano’s 85 mph sweeper 405 feet and over the right-field wall.
Sugano dodged major danger with two outs in the fifth. Justin Crawford reached on an infield hit, and Trea Turner doubled when Moniak lost a shallow flyball in the sun in right field, and it dropped in for a cheap hit.
Up to the plate stepped dangerous slugger Kyle Schwarber, the longtime Rockie killer, who ripped a ball 107 mph to deep center. For a moment, it looked like a three-run homer until the ball settled into Jake McCarthy’s glove for the third out. Sugano walked off the mound with a sheepish grin.
“When a guy like Schwarber takes a swing and then stands up in the box, you think he probably got all of it,” McCarthy said. “So I think (Schwarber) probably thought he got it, too.
“But the ball — I don’t know if died is the word — but it came down short, and we were very fortunate it stayed in.”
Added Sugano: “That was a huge out. Depending on whether that was an out or if it was a hit, that could have changed the ballgame, so it was a huge out.”
Sugano was baseball royalty in Japan while spending his first 12 professional seasons with the Yomiuri Giants (2013-24) in Nippon Professional Baseball. He won two Sawamura Awards (Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award) in 2017 and 2018, and three MVP Awards in 2014, 2020 and 2024. He was an eight-time All-Star and led his league in ERA four times and in strikeouts twice.
Sugano pitched for the Orioles last season, his first in the majors. He made 30 starts and pitched 157 innings, while posting a 4.64 ERA.
Colorado’s offense has been spinning its wheels and grinding gears for most of the early part of the season, so it needed a boost from somebody. Moniak delivered.
The right fielder, whom the Phillies selected with the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, hit a two-out, solo homer in the first off right-hander Taijuan Walker. Two batters later, Rumfield followed up with his two-run homer. Moniak hit another solo homer in the fifth off Walker.
However, if it was super sweet to hit two homers against the organization he spent seven years with, he wasn’t about to say so.
“It’s always cool hitting two home runs in any game,” said Moniak, who recorded the third multi-home run game of his career. That last came on Sept. 14 of last season at San Diego.
“I still have a lot of buddies over there with Philly, and the coaching staff, and that’s the team that kind of raised me,” he continued. “I had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. I think it made me into the player I am today. So I just think hitting two homers against any team is great.”
Pitching probables
Monday: Astros TBD at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (0-0, 0.00 ERA), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Astros RHP Mike Burrows (1-1, 5.91) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (0-1, 2.89), 6:40 p.m.
Wednesday: Astros TBD at Rockies TBD, 1:10 p.m.
TV: Rockies.TV
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.
