Bradish Befuddles Yankees As Orioles Complete First Shutout Of Season

Adley Rutschman hung his head in frustration, believing he had just flown out with two strikes, but the ball had other ideas.

It kept carrying toward the wall, Yankees hulking centerfield Spencer Jones got a glove on it and by the time the Orioles catcher looked up halfway down the first base line he was celebrating yet another clutch hit and the exclamation point on Baltimore’s biggest series win of the season. Rutschman’s fifth-inning homer – his third hit of the day – put the Orioles up 5-0 and they cruised to victory, 7-0.

Rutschman has done damage consistently from both sides of the plate this season, but Coby Mayo and Blaze Alexander, who had very slow starts, also contributed and the Orioles beat lefty Max Fried – running up his pitch count before he left with an elbow injury – and bested a southpaw twice in this series after opening 0-9 vs them. The Yankees smashed the Orioles in a four-game series in the Bronx (Orioles skipper Craig Albernaz likened it to being punched in the face), and this was an essential statement by the Orioles, while New York’s slide is now 1-6 in their last seven.

Of all the positive developments for the Orioles in this series – they scored early again and actually scored first vs New York in seven games against them – the biggest came on the mound for Baltimore. Kyle Bradish, a former Cy Young candidate who looked lost much of this season, again flashed his curveball early, then wielded his sinker as a weapons and pitched from ahead and dictated to New York’s lineup.

Bradish was struggling with command and spiking wild pitches and seemed quite frustrated with his early returns, but has clearly turned a corner and looks more like the version he presented prior to Tommy John surgery. Bradish stuck out 10 A’s in his last outing – five with the curveball against a potent lineup – and he fanned two Yankees early with the curve then pocketed it (five total thrown in the outing) to show off the rest of his arsenal.

Bradish picked up 14 swing-and-miss in the game, he gave up just one hit and the bullpen, in tremendous form right now, made it hold for Baltimore’s first shutout of the season.

"It's huge," Albernaz said of Bradish's outing, "epecially with Eff (Zach Eflin) going down and Dean Kramer (on the IL), having KB step up and doping what he's doing, it's been awesome to see. That's vintage KB the past two starts. Hopefully we keep that rolling."

Early Runs

Baltimore got the bats going early, too. Coby Mayo, who won Monday’s game with a three-run homer, plated a run with a double in the second. Alexander reached on a bunt as part of his three-hit outing and got to second on Fried’s throwing error, Taylor Ward extended his MLB-lead in walks and Rutschman made it 2-0 with a sacrifice lineout. Pete Alonso’s base hit made it 3-0 and Alexander, who also stole a base on Wednesday, drove in two in the sixth to extend the lead to 7-0.

"We have the ability to be a diverse offense," Albernaz said after his team displayed a sound approach moving runners over and going the other way with men on base.

Bird Seed

The Orioles suffered yet another bizarre injury – and another pre-game injury – with rookie outfielder Dylan Beavers placed on the Injured List before the game with an always-tricky oblique injury. Beavers was putting together quality at bats and back in form, and it’s prompted more questions about the training staff put together by this front office. Albernaz expressed confidence the injury with Beavers is lower in severity. Catcher Maverick Handley, already in Baltimore on the taxi squad, was added to the active roster but more transactions are certain to come … This game was moved up from an evening start to beat an impending storm … The Orioles face the Nationals next, a team that is scoring as many runs as any team in the majors but also giving up as many and the rare baseball club actually committing more fielding gaffes than the Orioles. Might be some looong games.

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