Bradish shines in return home with quality start

PHOENIX -- With more than 70 of his family members and friends packing the stands all around Chase Field on Saturday night, Kyle Bradish needed a way to realize what was actually happening. That’s why he had to pinch himself when he stepped onto the field to warm up shortly before his start.

“I had to a little bit when I was playing catch, just seeing all the faces out there that I knew,” the Orioles right-hander said.

A native of Peoria, Ariz., and a graduate of Millennium High School in nearby Goodyear, Bradish didn’t want to let down his many supporters when he stepped onto the mound located in downtown Phoenix for the first time in his 26-year-old life. He wanted to impress them in person the way he has been doing all year when they’ve watched him on TV.

He certainly did just that.

Bradish weathered some early adversity before grinding through another strong outing, tossing six quality innings in the Orioles’ 7-3 victory over the D-backs. The righty -- who attended many games at Chase Field during his childhood, but had never previously even stepped onto the field here -- allowed two runs and struck out six in his 15th quality start in 25 outings this year.

Baltimore added a game to its American League East lead over Tampa Bay, which lost in 11 innings to Cleveland earlier in the night.

• Games remaining: at AZ (1), at LAA (3), at BOS (3), vs. STL (3), vs. TB (4), at HOU (3), at CLE (4), vs. WAS (2), vs. BOS (4)

• Standings update: The Orioles (84-51) extended their AL East lead to 2 1/2 games over the second-place Rays (82-54). Baltimore currently has the best record in the AL, meaning it would not have to play a Wild Card Series and would head to the AL Division Series as the No. 1 seed.

Bradish felt even more pressure entering this outing than he did when he made his first big league start for Baltimore on April 29, 2022, vs. Boston at Camden Yards.

“I’ll be honest,” Bradish said, “that was probably the most nervous I’ve been, even more so than my debut, just knowing I’m going to have that many people out there and you want to go out and have a good game.”

Bradish retired six of the first seven Arizona batters he faced before encountering some trouble in the third, when he yielded both of his runs allowed. Ketel Marte hit an RBI double and Alek Thomas added an RBI fielder’s choice.

But the D-backs stranded runners on the corners, as Bradish halted their rally by getting Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to ground out to end the inning.

“He had a really tough inning going when they scored that second run,” said Cedric Mullins, who hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the Orioles’ six-run fourth. “Just amazing how he was able to get out of that and keep momentum for us to come back and get some runs on the board.”

Added catcher James McCann: “I was impressed when things didn’t go his way that he didn’t let things snowball and he stayed in control of his emotions.”

After that, Bradish cruised the rest of the way. He set down 10 of the final 12 batters he faced, including each of the last five. The righty worked a 1-2-3 sixth and finished with a career-high 107 pitches while keeping his ERA at 3.03, which ranks third best among qualified AL pitchers behind only the Twins’ Sonny Gray (2.92) and the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (2.95).

In his second big league season, Bradish has developed into Baltimore’s most reliable starter, with the potential to eventually progress into the role of staff ace. He keeps hitters off-balance because of his vast array of pitches, each of which he used effectively on Saturday -- his sinker (31 times), slider (22), four-seam fastball (22), curveball (20) and changeup (12).

“He’s just got some good stuff, man,” D-backs first baseman Christian Walker said. “All his pitches do something different. The sinker goes arm side, the cutter goes the other way, the slider is short and hard and then, the big curveball. He does a good job mixing, but to sum it up, just some really good stuff."

As Bradish exited the field following the sixth -- when his night, he knew, was over -- he heard a large ovation from all of the Orioles fans in attendance. And, of course, all those familiar faces he had seen in the stands earlier in the night.

Bradish’s Arizona homecoming couldn’t have gone much better.

“It was great. It was a dream come true to pitch here,” Bradish said. “There’s not really words to describe what the feeling was pitching out there.”