BALTIMORE _ Asher Wojciechowski began July on a plane heading from Columbus, Ohio, to Tampa, Fla., on his way to join an Orioles organization granting him an opportunity it didn't last year and one no team had in two seasons. He had good reason to feel sky high again Sunday.
The 30-year-old right-hander's career day in a 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox began with six hitless innings before Rafael Devers doubled off Oriole Park's right-center wall to lead off the seventh. It was the only hit Wojciechowski allowed in 7 1/3 innings, finishing with 10 strikeouts for the Orioles' first double-digit performance of 2019. By game score, it was the Baltimore's best start of the season, surpassing David Hess' 6 1/3 no-hit innings in Toronto on the team's season-opening roadtrip in Toronto, as the Orioles won a series against the Red Sox for the first time since Aug. 25-27, 2017.
That season marked the last time Wojciechowski, who spent part of 2018 with Triple-A Norfolk but never with the Orioles, pitched in the major leagues before the Cleveland Indians traded him to Baltimore for cash considerations. He had been with Cleveland's Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, but the Orioles immediately inserted him in their major league rotation. He fared admirably in his first handful of starts, but none matched the dominance of Saturday.
Devers was the only Boston batter to consistently make hard contact off Wojciechowski on Sunday. He nearly homered in the first inning, but Trey Mancini caught the ball on the warning track between two strikeouts.
In the bottom half of the inning, Andrew Cashner made his second start for Boston after the Orioles traded him for two 17-year-old prospects. Mancini, who homered twice Wednesday, did so again Sunday, with both shots coming off Cashner and giving Mancini 21 on the season. Chris Davis added an RBI double in the second to account for the four runs Orioles scored off their former starter in his six innings.
Wojciechowski, meanwhile, set down five straight Red Sox on strikes from the first inning to the third before hitting Brock Holt with a 2-0 pitch. He recovered mightily, and through four innings, he had already set a career high with nine strikeouts.
The mark he surpassed was seven, set Tuesday against the Washington Nationals. In all of his four starts with Baltimore, Wojciechowski has struck out more than a batter per inning, with Sunday's outing also featuring a career-high 23 swinging strikes. The three highest swing-and-miss totals of his career have come in his past three starts.
He walked Holt to begin the sixth, then got a double play from Marco Hernandez before inducing a soft line drive by Mookie Betts to end the frame. His pursuit of the Orioles' first solo no-hitter in nearly 50 years came to an end on Devers' 109.3 mph double beginning the seventh, but Wojciechowski retired the next three Red Sox to leave Devers at second.
He struck out Christian Vazquez to start the seventh, his 10th, before walking Jackie Bradley Jr. on his 105th pitch. Manager Brandon Hyde pulled him to a standing ovation from the Orioles fans among the announced 18,173 in attendance, and Paul Fry struck out the next two to preserve Wojciechowski's scoreless line.
After Jonathan Villar homered in the bottom of the eighth, Mychal Givens completed the Orioles' fourth shutout of 2019 and gave Wojciechowski his first major league win since Sept. 1, 2017, 22 months before the flight that gave him this chance.
