Bradish's rare gem vs. AL East foe goes by the wayside

BALTIMORE -- The first 34 starts of Kyle Bradish’s MLB career had a glaring divide, almost evenly down the middle: His 16 outings against American League East rivals and his 18 against non-division opponents.

In starts against AL East teams (entering Wednesday), Bradish was 0-8 with a 7.86 ERA. In outings against non-AL East teams, he was 6-1 with a 2.44 ERA. The Orioles right-hander has often looked like two different pitchers based on which team is in the opposing dugout.

On Wednesday night at Camden Yards, Bradish bucked the trend with a gem against the Blue Jays. Yet, the 26-year-old still couldn’t earn his first AL East victory.

While Bradish tossed seven masterful innings of one-run ball, Baltimore’s red-hot offense was mostly silenced during a 3-1 loss to Toronto. The O’s, who had scored 11 runs in each of their past two games, didn’t record their first hit until the seventh, when Adley Rutschman led off with a single to end Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos’ pursuit of a no-hitter.

“Two really good starters, great starts from both guys,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

A trend that continued? Berríos’ dominance vs. Baltimore. The 29-year-old needed only 90 pitches to navigate 7 2/3 sterling innings, during which he allowed only three hits -- a trio of singles, including two in the eighth. He improved to 10-0 with a 2.66 ERA in 13 career starts against the Orioles.

So it would have taken a near-perfect night for Bradish to keep pace. But that’s almost what he delivered, even though his wipeout slider wasn’t as crisp as usual.

“Definitely very pleased,” Bradish said of his outing. “Without having my best pitch, it was a grind.”

Bradish threw his sinker and slider 28 times each, per Statcast, but he felt he had much better command of the former than the latter. His slider induced only one whiff among eight swings, and he landed only two for called strikes.

Nine of Toronto’s first 10 batters were retired by Bradish, who then kept the Blue Jays off the board in both the fourth and fifth despite allowing leadoff singles in each. However, his lone blemish came with one out in the sixth and leadoff hitter George Springer at the plate.

Bradish fell behind to Springer, 1-0, when he threw a sinker below the zone. Typically, Bradish said he would have thrown a slider next, but not when that pitch hadn’t been up to par. Instead, he threw his second (and final) changeup of the night. And he hung it over the middle of the plate, resulting in a 437-foot home run to left field for the game’s first run.

“I think throwing that, in that situation where I’ve been feeding him [sinkers], kind of did him a favor,” Bradish said. “He got the head out and I just kind of threw it down the middle.”

But Bradish regrouped and retired the final five batters he faced, as he completed seven innings for the first time this season. Of his 12 starts, he’s had five in which he’s gone six or more frames and allowed fewer than two runs. However, the previous four were all against non-division foes.

In fact, this was only the third time Bradish has completed six innings vs. an AL East team (the previous two were both against Boston) and only the second in which he went seven. Before Wednesday, his only seven-inning divisional outing came Sept. 11, 2022, when he tossed a one-run gem in a 1-0 loss to the Red Sox.

“Every outing, I try to go out there, show growth,” Bradish said. “I think, without having my slider, maybe last year it’s a different line than it was tonight.”

The performance impressed one of Bradish’s newest teammates in Baltimore.

“He was really good. It seemed like he was pinpointing his spots a lot, he was keeping them off-balance for the most part,” outfielder Aaron Hicks said. “He did phenomenal.”

Hicks, who has reached base in all 12 of his games with the Orioles since signing on May 30, produced the team’s only run. After Ryan O’Hearn and Austin Hays hit back-to-back two-out singles in the ninth, Hicks followed with one of his own to plate O’Hearn. But Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano denied the comeback attempt by striking out Adam Frazier to end it.

Bradish knows well that Baltimore always has a chance for a late rally, especially in a tight game, having seen it happen so often this year. But Hicks has already learned that, too.

“We definitely showed heart right there in the ninth inning, coming up with some clutch hits,” Hicks said. “The fact that we just kept fighting means a lot.”