It’s not an overreaction to three starts in a lost Orioles season if it’s only solidifying what we’ve known for years: Kyle Bradish is a great pitcher, and the way he has demonstrated that since returning from Tommy John surgery last month is promising in a way that’s surpassed even the most bullish expectations for his comeback.
He completed seven of the most comfortable innings you’ll see Tuesday night in a mildly funny 3-2, walk-off win over the Pirates, striking out six and allowing just one run on four hits with a pair of walks. His stuff has come back, which didn’t feel like it was ever in question after his 10-strikeout return on Aug. 26.
But to watch him navigate a lineup, even a middling one like Pittsburgh’s, the way he did speaks to something that was never going to go away. He is adept at reading swings, navigating at-bats and efficiently delivering both himself and his team late into a game with a chance to win.
That doesn’t go away with 14 months on the shelf with an injury; it can actually be enhanced in that period. It’s fair to warn against expecting a pitcher coming off a major injury to be just as good, which makes it even more dangerous to think he could get better. Bradish feels like he’s an exception to all that.
“I think I just learned a lot about myself as a pitcher,” Bradish said. “Usually, I come out of the gates hot, velo is really good. We’re learning how to navigate that and once I get settled in later in the game, become more of a pitchability guy, knowing how to set up guys and put them away when I need to or get early contact when I need it.”
Tuesday was a chance for Bradish to demonstrate all that — but not before a first inning in which he got to experience the dumb luck his teammates endured for most of his time on the shelf.
After a one-out double, he issued a four-pitch walk to Bryan Reynolds in which two pitches clipped the strike zone, then allowed a two-out dribbler through the left side from Andrew McCutchen to score the game’s first run.
But he got out of it without much more damage and in the second inning did what great starters do to the bottom of the lineup: carved them up. With one out, Bradish threw three straight sliders to strike out former top pick Henry Davis. When Davis chased one down-and-away for strike two, Bradish went right back to it for strike three. No. 9 hitter Cam Devanney swung through a fastball for a strikeout of his own to end the inning.
To go through the pitch charts of a Bradish start is an exercise in easily understanding the plan he was trying to execute, and marveling that he did it so well. With two outs in the third, Bradish went below the zone with a two-strike sinker and then a two-strike slider before dialing up a four-seamer at the bottom of the zone that Reynolds whiffed on. It was a pitcher’s pitch that he set up with the previous two, armed with the knowledge that Reynolds had tipped a four-seamer early in the at-bat.
When he got into a little jam in the fourth with two on and two outs, there was only one way to attack Davis — another slider away that he grounded out to end the inning. When he saw Reynolds again, having thrown him mostly fastballs and sliders the previous two at-bats, it was two straight curveballs that did the trick: one he whiffed on, and the next a groundout. That was the start of a six-pitch sixth inning against the meat of the Pirates’ order, which allowed him to get to the seventh — and really shine. Nick Gonzales added a bit of pressure by singling to make himself the game-tying run to lead off the inning. It ultimately didn’t matter.
Bradish’s first two pitches to Oneil Cruz were curveballs down and away, the first a called strike and the second in the dirt. After coming inside with a slider Cruz fouled off, Bradish froze him with a fastball on the outer half that started out on the same line as those curveballs but stayed true. Davis, who saw a steady diet of sliders again to start his third at-bat, froze on a sinker that started on the outer half and, unlike all those sliders, stayed in the zone for a called third strike. Devanney flied out to end the inning and Bradish’s day.
I was told before Bradish’s return that the stuff was in a really good place, but you never know. I wasn’t concerned about how his return ultimately went, though, because even if he wasn’t at his best physically — which is typically the case after such a long layoff— Bradish has the smarts and pitchability to be a good pitcher even without his best stuff.
What feels clear is that part of Bradish’s game is enhanced, and all he’s doing stuff-wise is setting a baseline for what to expect going forward. Rookie catcher Samuel Basallo lauded Bradish’s execution, saying it’s fun to catch someone with an explosive arsenal like that who can keep hitters so off-balance.
That’s the stuff of a top-drawer starting pitcher. There are three months worth of evidence that Trevor Rogers is one. There are three starts to show Bradish remains one post-injury.
“He’s just kind of getting going, too,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “He’s going to be even better here going into these next couple starts and into next year.”
A full season of that is going to make a big difference in the Orioles rotation.