Kyle Bradish looks strong in scoreless rehab outing tonight at Bowie

BOWIE, Md. – It’s a significant step tonight for Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish, who finished fourth last year for the American League Cy Young Award. He is making his first start in a game in 2024 on a minor league rehab assignment outing for the Double-A Bowie Baysox against Altoona, a Pittsburgh affiliate.

And in this outing, he looked like the 2023 Kyle Bradish, the pitcher we last saw in a game in the American League Division Series in October. He pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, a single, with four strikeouts and no walks and touched 95 and 96 mph on the stadium radar gun.

Maybe even the Orioles could have not have expected much more or for Bradish to look this good, this fast. But he did.

His last start in a game was when he gave up two runs over 4 2/3 innings last Oct. 7 in Baltimore in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers.

Diagnosed in January with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Bradish had a platelet-rich plasma injection to try to get himself back into the O’s rotation.

Tonight was an important step in that direction. He aced the test.

Bradish ended each inning with a swinging strikeout, throwing 44 pitches, 26 for strikes and by my count, getting 11 swinging strikes.

The Baysox let a foul pop drop as catcher Silas Ardoin and first baseman Samuel Basallo deferred to the other and the ball fell just foul with one out in the top of the third. But even that couldn't hamper this outing. Three pitches later, Bradish got No. 9 hitter Kervin Pichardo to ground out.

He got two groundouts and a strikeout in the first. Allowed a one-out line drive single to left in the second and pitched a 1-2-3 third, facing 10 men, one over the minimum in his three frames.

Right-hander Brandon Young started the fourth for Bowie, which led 4-0 after three innings as Dylan Beavers hit a solo homer, Frederick Bencosme tripled in two runs and TT Bowens added an RBI single.

Bradish spent time with High-A Aberdeen last week and was possibly going to pitch for the IronBirds last Thursday night. But expected rain led the organization to move up his outing into a simulated game/live batting practice session that afternoon.

So tonight he finally faced an opponent in the box and not a teammate or O’s minor leaguer.

“Yeah I’m excited. It will be nice to face some other jerseys,” Bradish said Sunday morning in the Baltimore clubhouse after he had thrown a bullpen session Saturday afternoon.

“It will be nice. Kind of treating this as my spring training," Bradish said. "Just working out some different mechanical things, but it will be nice to get in a game setting." 

Last year Bradish was 12-7 with a 2.83 ERA in 30 starts for the Orioles during a breakout season.

For one rehab outing tonight, he looked a lot like that pitcher.

Via my Twitter, here are the strikeouts that ended each inning here, here and here.