ARLINGTON, Texas — Baltimore Orioles top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez struck out five in five innings and exited his big league debut Wednesday with the game tied against two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers.
Rodriguez settled down after needing 30 pitches to get through the first inning, when he allowed back-to-back RBI hits to Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung as Texas took a 2-0 lead. The right-hander retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced, and struck out All-Star shortstop Corey Seager twice.
The Orioles called up the 23-year-old Rodriguez after Kyle Gibson, their scheduled starter for the finale, was moved up a day to pitch Tuesday in place of Tyler Wells, who ended up having to pitch in long relief Monday.
Rodriguez was the 11th overall pick by the Orioles in the 2018 draft out of Central Heights High School in Nacogdoches, Texas, which is about 175 miles from Globe Life Field. Several family and friends, including some wearing Blue Devils shirts that represented the school, were at the game.
He got his first big-league strikeout against Ezequiel Duran to end the second inning. He struck out Seager in the third and again to end the fifth on the last of his 83 pitches. Rodriguez threw 53 strikes and walked only one batter.
DeGrom, in his second start for Texas since a $185 million, five-year contract in free agency, retired the first 12 batters he faced before the Orioles tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Adam Frazier.
After a 7.04 ERA in five spring training starts for the Orioles, Rodriguez began this season at Triple-A Norfolk. He allowed 14 runs (11 earned) over 10⅔ innings in his final three Grapefruit League games. In the season opener for Norfolk on Friday, he gave up three runs (two earned) over four innings against Durham.
He has a 25-9 record and 2.49 ERA in 70 minor league games since his professional debut in 2018, with 421 strikeouts over 296 innings. He missed three months last season with a right lat strain.
Gibson threw seven innings in the Orioles’ 7-2 win on Tuesday, after his scheduled start was pushed up a day. Wells had been set to start that game, but threw five no-hit innings in relief Monday night after starter Kyle Bradish exited in the second inning of the series opener with a bruised right foot after getting struck by a liner.
Brandish was put on the 15-day injured list.