BALTIMORE — Spenser Watkins fought back tears last week describing how meaningful the long-awaited major league call-up he earned from the Orioles was.
Judging by his first major league start, he might be worth keeping around.
The 28-year-old Watkins gave manager Brandon Hyde and the Orioles their best start in weeks to help secure a 7-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays before 7,388 fans at Camden Yards Tuesday. Pedro Severino, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander each hit home runs and kicked off the team’s final homestand before the All-Star break with a rare home win that got closer than it needed too late.
It didn’t always look fated to go so well for Watkins, who signed as a minor league free agent this winter after sticking around for seven seasons in the Detroit Tigers organization after he was a 30th-round pick from Division II Western Oregon in 2014.
He walked leadoff man Marcus Semien, who went to third on a single by Bo Bichette and scored on a sacrifice fly by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. three batters into the game. But from there, Watkins kept Toronto quiet.
Watkins allowed a baserunner in every inning, but none got past first base. He pitched five innings of three-hit, one-run ball with three walks and two strikeouts. The last time an Orioles starter went at least five innings and allowed one run or fewer was fellow rookie Keegan Akin on June 4. Orioles starters hadn’t completed five innings in their last eight games.
Before the game, Hyde quipped that nights like Tuesday where he didn’t know what to expect from his starter had “happened a few times this year.” Watkins pitched a scoreless inning of relief Friday against the Los Angeles Angels, but that was the extent of Hyde’s familiarity with him, outside a few half-looks when Watkins came to major league spring training from minor league camp.
“Spenser is thought very highly of by our pro scouting people, and our pitching guys really like his stuff,” Hyde said.
He proved to be the only Orioles pitcher to keep the Blue Jays in the ballpark. Toronto added late solo home runs by Randal Grichuk off Dillon Tate in the seventh and Guerrero off Tanner Scott in the eighth, then cut the deficit to 7-5 with a two-run home run by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. off Tyler Wells in the ninth.
When Watkins passed the game off to the bullpen, he did so with a comfortable lead. Severino hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, then All-Star Mullins and Santander hit home runs of their own in a five-run fifth inning to help build a 7-1 lead.
Mullins’ home run was his team-high 16th of the year, while Santander’s landed on Eutaw Street and was the 50th all-time by an Orioles player.
