The long-term vision when the Orioles traded Dylan Bundy for four minor league prospects in 2019 might’ve looked a lot like Wednesday night, when right-hander Kyle Bradish — acquired in that deal — pitched a gem against the club that drafted him.
Of those four prospects received from the Los Angeles Angels, Bradish is the first and only to reach the major leagues. He was the centerpiece of the offseason trade package that sent one of Baltimore’s most established starting pitchers to the West Coast in favor of a rebuild. And on Wednesday he justified the decision made by the Orioles front office four years ago.
Bradish arrived in the majors at the right time, pitching in the rotation of a contender. He carved through the Angels lineup Wednesday, and he was inches from a shutout — a home run ball off Mike Trout’s bat narrowly eluding Cedric Mullins’ glove at the wall.
Against a lineup with two superstars in it, allowing just one run in Baltimore’s 3-1 victory was more than satisfactory for Bradish. He recorded his longest outing of his season, allowing four hits in 6 2/3 innings, and did it against the team he might’ve pitched for had a career-altering trade not occurred.
“Kyle just had a ton of life to his fastball tonight,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Was working ahead in the count, 95 to 96 [mph] with cut, really good breaking balls. Not many rallies. Was just working ahead all night and was working ahead in the strike zone, and huge for us to get him into the seventh inning.”
As it turns out, Baltimore traded a rotation staple for a player who wouldn’t debut for another two seasons — and it worked. Bradish arrived last year and made strides throughout the campaign, improving as the season went on to become a rotation staple in his own right. Although the beginning to this year was interrupted by a right foot contusion that resulted in a stint on the injured list, Bradish has made up for lost time.
In his last two starts, Bradish has allowed one earned run in 12 2/3 frames. In that time, he’s walked one batter, struck out 11 and given up just seven hits.
“I think the behind-the-scenes stuff I’ve put in with mechanics, just being very consistent and filling up the strike zone,” Bradish said when asked what has worked especially well the past two outings.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Bundy has fallen out of the big leagues and was ejected Wednesday in his start for the Triple A Syracuse Mets for allegedly violating the league’s foreign substance rule.
The Angels selected Bradish in the fourth round of the 2018 draft out of New Mexico State, and he pitched only one year in their organization before joining Baltimore. The vast majority of his time in professional baseball, then, has come as an Oriole, diminishing some of the emotion that might come with meeting your former club.
“The time I did have, I made some really good friends I still talk to,” Bradish said. “So in that aspect, yes, but not really different from any other start.”
Bradish retired nine of his first 10 opponents before Trout’s home run sneaked just over the center field fence and out of Mullins’ reach, and he had the offensive support to back him. He didn’t need much, after all.
Ryan Mountcastle and Mullins recorded RBI singles in the third and fourth innings, respectively, to establish a one-run lead. And then Austin Hays, who infrequently hits for power the opposite way, clubbed a solo homer to right field for extra breathing room.
On top of it, Gunnar Henderson recorded his first two-hit game since April 25, another positive sign of a turnaround for the 21-year-old.
“I knew it would happen eventually,” Henderson said. “Just keep putting good swings on the ball and it’ll eventually fall your way. And I felt like I was doing that and it was only a matter of time.”
Still, Baltimore hit just 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.
The Orioles needed the stout pitching efforts out of the bullpen from Danny Coulombe, Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista to maintain that lead. In the ninth, particularly, Bautista found himself in a battle with Shohei Ohtani, which Hyde admitted “was not the matchup I was looking for with the tying run at the plate, to be honest with you.”
But Bautista struck Ohtani out, peppering the lower part of the zone with deceiving splitters that forced one of the game’s best hitters to swing and miss.
“Just guys that are at the top of their game, the top of their profession,” Hyde said of that matchup. “Félix threw some great splits to him. It’s great to see him get that split down.”
To establish that narrow margin in the first place, Bradish needed to shut down his former organization. And he did.
