Tomoyuki Sugano arrived at Camden Yards on Saturday just before 3:15 p.m. and strolled calmly into the home clubhouse, earbuds in. Locked in. He looked over the scouting report provided in his locker, dressed and headed down a hall to begin the rest of his pregame prep.

More than three hours later, he exited the dugout, bound for the bullpen, carrying his glove in his left hand, and started dashing through calisthenics in center field. After that, he tossed a few practice pitches, readying for his usual routine to continue on the mound. “I do feel confident, but, more than anything, I think I feel more comfortable,” he’d say later. “I know how to prep going into the game.”

But some things, as this year’s Orioles understand, don’t go to plan.

The nationally televised game was stopped after one scoreless frame, just after 7:30 when a thunderstorm arrived, then the game picked up a relatively quick 57 minutes later, following a much more abbreviated warmup than earlier. Before the break, Sugano had thrown just nine pitches and looked sharp. The good news: Afterward, he did, too.

The worse news: Sugano wasn’t perfect, and he had to be.

The Orioles’ offense couldn’t solve Royals left-handed starter Kris Bubic or the Kansas City bullpen in a 4-0 loss on Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 19,348 that stuck out the delay.

Gunnar Henderson went 3-for-4, but the O’s best chance to score came before the storm. Baltimore left seven runners on base.

In the first, Henderson went the other way down an open left-field line to move Adley Rutschman to second with one out, but Ryan Mountcastle struck out and Ryan O’Hearn flied out to the right-field warning track.

Sugano, though, gave the Orioles a chance. He allowed a hit to Maikel Garcia to open the second but then drew a double-play ground ball with his splitter and forced a flyout to left field with a sweeper. On the way back to the dugout, Sugano paused to dap up second baseman Jorge Mateo for starting the play that turned two and helped put Sugano back in rhythm.

The 35-year-old, right-hander — an MLB rookie but seasoned baseball veteran with a 12-year career in Japan — gave these O’s the kind of steady performance they needed from a starting pitcher — again, even if the situation was new for him, a rarity.

“I’ve played baseball for a very long time, but it was my first experience having that,” Sugano said after the game, through his interpreter, Yuto Sakurai. Sugano played his home games inside at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. He said he spent this delay resting but also riding an exercise bike to stay loose and not lose “momentum.”

It worked. Sugano began the outing with three scoreless innings for the second straight start, surrendered just four hits and two earned runs, and struck out three. He was efficient, throwing 79 pitches over six innings.

Sugano also walked only two, very on brand (he had walked just six batters all year coming in). But, as he’s also done frequently through seven starts, Sugano (3-2) allowed a home run; in the fifth, Cavan Biggio smacked a one-out dinger to right center on a first-pitch fastball to give Kansas City a 2-0 edge.

Sugano’s first earned run wasn’t as egregious. Garcia staked the Royals a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a two-out single, lofting a low curveball that scored Jonathan India from second.

“I thought he handled it fantastic,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said of Sugano and the interruption. “Both starters got their outings cut short by probably an inning or so because of that hour delay, but Tomo’s got a lot of experience and he stayed ready. [He] went down to the bullpen when the tarp was pulled. I thought he had the same stuff as he had in the first inning, so I thought he threw the ball great.”

Bubic (3-2) threw five scoreless innings, allowing four hits and one walk with three strikeouts, and lefty relievers Daniel Lynch IV and John Schreiber and righty Lucas Erceg completed the shutout.

“We’ve got to do a better job against left-handed pitching,” Hyde said. “It’s been a struggle so far.”

Bryan Baker tossed a scoreless seventh for the O’s before Seranthony Domínguez surrendered a leadoff solo shot then a two-out homer — Domínguez’s first and second long balls allowed of the year — to Kyle Isbel and Vinnie Pasquantino in the eighth that ballooned the final deficit to four.

Overall — with opening day starter Zach Eflin still sidelined (but possibly returning soon), Grayson Rodriguez sidelined until further notice and starting pitching depth and effectiveness lacking — Sugano, a projected back-end starter heading into the season, has looked like the Orioles ace.

The strains of this young O’s campaign have been many.

Quite literally, irritated muscles and other injures have now put an almost irrational 14 Orioles on the injured list this year (the latest is third baseman Ramón Urías with a bum hamstring, replaced by prospect Coby Mayo on the roster ahead of Saturday’s game).

Practically, a 10-17 record by late April, marked by poor starting pitching, has been difficult to stomach. But day by day, at least this week, baseball life has become a touch lighter and brighter for these O’s.

They entered the second meeting of this three-game series with Kansas City (18-16) having won three of their last four, including two over the AL East-leading Yankees and two consecutive games only the second time this year.

But on Saturday night at Camden Yards, the O’s, now 13-19, failed to make it three in a row for the first time. Sugano did his part. The O’s offense didn’t.

Notes and quotes

In his 2025 O’s debut, Mayo (0-for-2) pinch-hit against Lynch with no outs in the seventh inning and Ramón Laureano on first and popped out to second. He took over at third base for Emmanuel Rivera for the final two frames and collected a forceout in the eighth, and he also made the final out of the game at the plate.

“I’m happy and grateful for another opportunity,” Mayo said in the clubhouse after the game. “I think every player wants an opportunity to show their talent and showcase their abilities to be a really good major league baseball player. And I think I’ve done a really good job of being a really good minor league player. Now it’s about becoming a really good, consistent major league player.”

Of the 14 players now on the IL, Hyde said before the game: “It’s a lot of guys.” He laughed as if he couldn’t believe it, before offering this perspective: “[We have] to worry about the 26 guys right now that we have on the roster and do everything we can to play well. I don’t see anybody hanging their heads or feeling sorry for us. We got to put one foot in front of the other.”

Corey McLaughlin is a veteran writer and editor who has covered sports in Baltimore for more than a decade. He has contributed to the Banner since 2022.