What’s your favorite Bradish-ism? Is it his funny little lean-back windup? The way he takes a left turn and a stroll around the mound between hitters? Mine is the way his right arm bounces back after the follow-through — and when he’s just racked up a strikeout, it looks like he does this almost with disdain.
Well, today, there were strikeouts. Ten of them, in six innings, with no walks, the first time an Oriole starter has accomplished this feat all year. Yes, tonight went down as another Orioles
lifeless loss, the bats silenced by Boston’s Lucas Giolito over eight innings. The Red Sox scored two runs against Bradish, and three more, technically, against Yaramil Hiraldo, after some lamentable ninth-inning defensive shenanigans.
But truthfully, I’m too numb to bad Orioles baseball this season — and too excited seeing Kyle Bradish back on the mound after over 400 days! — to be really bummed about this.
Bradish looked good. I won’t say there was no rust on the righty – his control was a little wonky and his four-seam velocity diminished over the game. He hung two pitches, to Trevor Story and No. 8 hitter David Hamilton, that got put into the seats. Those were flat misses by Bradish: Story got a hanging curveball and just curled it around the foul pole in left field, and Hamilton was the lucky recipient of a 93-mph two-seamer in the middle of the zone.
But beyond those two mistakes, boy, did the stuff look good.
Bradish hit 98 mph with his fastball. Boston hitters took eight swings against his slider, whiffing five times. The Bradish curveball was huge (and breaking balls are reportedly the hardest pitches to get back after TJ surgery). His two-seamer was mystifying: At one point, Bradish caught Story staring at one that seemed six inches off the plate to the glove side, then inexplicably tailed back into the strike zone. Ben McDonald, in typical fashion, said, “That’s not fair.”
Since Bradish got put on the shelf last June for Tommy John surgery, this Orioles rotation hasn’t been anywhere near the frightening juggernaut it was with him. Kevin Brown called tonight’s outing a “masterclass” for Bradish, and it’s clear he wasn’t even fully back to 100%. Man, he’s been missed.
Unfortunately for the O’s, his counterpart Lucas Giolito, another Tommy John veteran (he returned earlier this spring) actually outdueled him. Giolito kept getting whiffs at the top of the zone from hitters late on his fastball, then getting people swinging over his changeup, which starts in the zone, then ducks out of it.
Giolito retired the Orioles in order in the first, second, fourth, and seventh innings. The only bright spot in the third was an Alex Jackson single. It looked for a bit like this would be the only thing standing between Giolito and a no-no, but in the fifth Dylan Beavers showed remarkable bat speed when he caught a high fastball squarely on the bat, tomahawking it to the center-field wall for a double. But it came with two outs, and he was stranded.
The O’s rallied again in the sixth, when Alex Jackson and Jeremiah Jackson hit singles. But Gunnar Henderson was called out on this pitch, and Colton Cowser grounded out to first. Bummer. Adding insult to injury, Giolito retired the Orioles on four pitches in the seventh, then gutted out a complete eighth: he walked Jackson Holliday and struggled against Jeremiah Jackson, showing him ten pitches before finally retiring with a changeup.
Eight strikeout innings on 104 pitches, with four hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts. However you slice it, this was a gem for the Boston righty.
And the O’s were on the receiving end of it. This has happened more times than it should, and unfortunately, given the state of the bats and the bullpen post-Trade Deadline, often a small deficit early becomes insurmountable later, and then you get people like Yaramil Hiraldo giving up runs late in the game.
Pitching in the eighth, Hiraldo served up a double to Ceddanne Rafaela, who scored on a fielder’s choice to make this 3-0, which felt a lot worse than 2-0. Hiraldo came back out for the ninth, Tony Mansolino probably figuring an extended audition was more important than fighting to keep this one close. Hiraldo didn’t excel, instead allowing another single and a walk, prompting a very slow walk to the mound by catcher Alex Jackson and a hook from Mansolino to bring in Yennier Cano.
This felt like an annoying prolonging of the inevitable, because a four-run Orioles rally in the ninth inning did not seem to be forthcoming. Especially not when the lead ballooned to five: with one out, Cano got a groundball to third, but Vimael Machín’s casual saunter to the bag allowed Boston’s speedy Ceddanne Rafaela to reach first and extend the inning. (Note to Machín: not a good look when you’ve only had four starts at third.) Then, a pop-up to left resulted in the silliest play of Dylan Beavers’ young career, as the rookie took his eye off the ball to scope out Gunnar, running back from short, and simply lost the ball. Two scored. Ugh.
It was 5-0 Boston, and if you were at Oriole Park, you could have been forgiven for heading to the parking lot. Two nice singles by Colton Cowser and Samuel Basallo in the ninth didn’t matter, because Coby Mayo keeps striking out too much, and so did pinch-hitter Ryan Mountcastle.
Hopefully, by this time next year, we’ll have a bullpen of names we can recognize, a lock on a playoff spot, and a full season of a healthy Bradish. For tonight, just a peek.
