Tomoyuki Sugano caught the ball back from Adley Rutschman with a bit of energy, a snap of his wrist that pronated his glove hand, but beyond that there was no outward semblance of excitement.

During spring training, the Orioles right-handed pitcher laughed about his plate appearance against New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. At 6-foot-7, Judge was by far the tallest human Sugano had ever faced. The Japanese pitcher isn’t short — he’s listed at 6-foot-1 — but Judge towers over most individuals.

He also hits most individuals hard.

Judge did just that in his first two at-bats against Sugano on Monday night. Judge came to the plate in the fifth inning with two hits already, and with a runner on first, he had a chance to cut into Baltimore’s lead. Sugano, though, fired a splitter and Judge swung through it. Strike three. Glove snap. Back to work.

There was no holding back Sugano’s excitement two batters later, however, when center fielder Cedric Mullins robbed Paul Goldschmidt of extra bases, if not a two-run home run. Sugano thrust his arms into the air to celebrate the final out of a masterful five-inning start that helped the Orioles to a much-needed 4-3 victory against the Yankees.

As others filtered into the dugout for the bottom half of the fifth inning, Sugano remained on the field until he could high-five Mullins for his play. But Sugano did plenty between himself and Rutschman alone by spinning a career-high eight strikeouts.

“I thought I saw a little bit more attitude and a little bit more intensity tonight coming off the field,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He was super fired up when Ced caught that ball. It was a big play. He looked really focused tonight and you could tell he was into it.”

His splitter, the offering that caught Judge swinging, drew nine whiffs on 12 swings against it. Sugano recorded a career-high 17 whiffs in those five frames.

When Sugano faced Judge in spring training, the Yankees home crowd booed the 35-year-old for walking the star slugger. Sugano joked, through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai, that he made sure not to walk Judge on Monday.

“I think this will be my first time pitching the game one of the series,” Sugano said. “I know how important it is to take the first game of the series and that’s what I had in mind.”

The traffic against Sugano in the first and third innings drove his pitch count up and prevented him from completing seven innings for a third straight start. What he offered instead was more than enough — after all, he became the first Orioles starter to begin his outing with three scoreless innings.

It has been a slog. Sugano, in contrast, has been ebullient.

“He was electric, and we need that,” Ryan O’Hearn said. “Tomo was outstanding.”

And when coupled with an RBI double from Ramón Laureano and a three-run home run from O’Hearn, Sugano’s scoreless five innings broke the Orioles out of a seven-game slide that featured six losses. Baltimore suffered a sweep to the Detroit Tigers this weekend. The Orioles lost two of three to the Washington Nationals before that.

Sugano, of course, delivered the most recent Orioles win before the series opener against the Yankees. It will take more all-around efforts from the Orioles to dig themselves out of an early hole in the Major League Baseball standings.

Entering this start, Sugano hadn’t displayed a propensity for the swing-and-miss. He managed nine combined strikeouts in his first five starts. He didn’t need the punchouts in those appearances because he generated weak contact — or at least contact that found gloves, even if hard-hit.

It was different Monday. Sugano needed the strikeout pitch to avoid a breakthrough in the first inning, when the Yankees loaded the bases. He struck out two in the third as he stranded runners on the corners.

“If I were to talk about just the splitter today, I think it was OK,” Sugano said. “But mixing in with the fastball made it more effective.”

Baltimore also spoiled a first-inning opportunity when Mullins and Gunnar Henderson reached second and third with no outs. A shallow flyout and two strikeouts followed, compounding the recent issues with runners in scoring position.

Laureano came through with two outs in the second, though, when he powered a double over the head of center fielder Trent Grisham to score Jackson Holliday from first. And O’Hearn’s three-run shot to the flag court gave the Orioles a more comfortable lead.

“Little exhale in the dugout after what we’ve been through lately and the road trip we went on and tough time scoring runs, tough time winning games” Hyde said. “Three-run homer there, that was a huge hit.”

They needed every bit of it. The Yankees plated an unearned run in the seventh and then jumped on left-hander Gregory Soto in the eighth. Doubles from Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells cut New York’s deficit to one run.

But closer Félix Bautista only needed a one-run lead to earn his fourth save of the season. After Bautista struck out Judge and Cody Bellinger to end the game, he spun off the mound. Rutschman rushed to greet him.

Bautista preserved what Sugano had started: a much-needed win for Baltimore.

“It feels like we’ve been punched in the gut a little bit this first month,” O’Hearn said, “but I have all the confidence in the world in these guys, and we’re going to get it going.”