The Orioles entered Tuesday night’s bottom of the ninth three outs from only their second game of the season decided by more than four runs, a trend manager Brandon Hyde joked earlier in the day was “not great for the blood pressure.”
But even in a game Baltimore faced seven-run deficits early and late, the Orioles did little to spare the hearts of Hyde or the announced crowd of 14,343 at Camden Yards. Cedric Mullins’ ninth-inning grand slam was not enough to make up for the one Kyle Bradish allowed early as an 8-6 loss ended Batimore’s seven-game winning streak.
“Just had a tough time coming back from that,” Hyde said.
During the streak, Orioles (15-8) starting pitchers allowed nine runs over 41 2/3 innings. Bradish then surrendered seven while recording as many outs. In his major league debut — the anniversary of which is Saturday — Bradish held the Red Sox to two earned runs over six innings. Since, he has surrendered 24 earned runs in 19 innings across five starts to Baltimore’s American League East foe. Including Tuesday’s outing of 2 1/3 innings, three of Bradish’s four shortest starts have come against Boston.
“I just think my bad outings have just come against them,” Bradish said. “I don’t think it’s any one thing about them. It’s just how that’s been working out.”
The exception was his first outing of this year, when a line drive to his right foot caused him to exit after recording only five outs against the Texas Rangers. After a stint on the injured list, Bradish returned last week with six scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals, a victory that was the third of the Orioles’ winning streak.
A run-free first gave Bradish 8 2/3 shutout frames to open his season. With one out in the second, a borderline full-count slider to Triston Cases was ruled a ball to end an 11-pitch battle. A double and three straight singles followed before a sacrifice fly gave Boston a 3-0 lead, with Bradish requiring 40 pitches to get through the inning. Three more singles opened the third, loading the bases, before Jarren Duran ended an eight-pitch at-bat by hammering a 93 mph fastball to center for his first home run of the season.
To that point, six of the seven hits Bradish allowed had launch angles of 10 degrees or lower, though five of them also had exit velocities of at least 94.8 mph, according to Statcast tracking data.
“The second inning, had some tough luck,” Bradish said. “Not really any ball hit hard. And then they came out swinging again third inning, and then just threw a not-really-competitive fastball to Duran, and he handled it.”
Bradish managed to record another out before a walk, his fourth of the outing, prompted Hyde to pull him. The Red Sox whiffed on only six of their 37 swings against Bradish; the 16.2% rate was the fourth lowest of his 26 career starts, with the two lowest coming against the Toronto Blue Jays, another AL East team, and the third also being a start opposite Boston.
Of his 29 two-strike pitches, 11 were balls and 10 were fouled off, while five became hits despite four of them being out of the strike zone.
“Fastball command just wasn’t there, and then I just wasn’t making quality pitches to put guys away,” Bradish said. “My pregame bullpen, my fastball was really good. And when I got out there, just kind of lost it. Needed to find another pitch to throw for strikes and didn’t really do that. But that’s something we work on in-between starts.”
Added Hyde: “They did a great job of spoiling a bunch of pitches, putting some balls in play that were off the plate. Thought the stuff was there. I just didn’t think the command was his best tonight.”
Boston right-hander Corey Kluber, who the Orioles hit four home runs off in 3 1/3 innings on opening day, went six strong innings, with Jorge Mateo’s fifth-inning solo shot accounting for Baltimore’s offense. After his fourth home run, Mateo is hitting .357 with a 1.067 OPS.
Left fielder Austin Hays exited the game after the third inning with a bruised right hand after it was hit with a sinker from Kluber on a foul bunt attempt.
Rookie Gunnar Henderson homered to lead off the ninth, his first long ball at Camden Yards this season. Two more hits and an infield error loaded the bases for Mullins, who narrowly cleared the right field wall for his second career grand slam. Boston turned to closer Kenley Jansen, who retired Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander to end the game.
“That was huge for us to just kind of show where we are as an offense, just be able to continue to chip away at a game that kind of seemed lost,” Mullins said. “Next thing you know, we’re back in the fight, just a couple hits away from tying and possibly taking the lead.”
Mike Baumann followed Bradish with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, leaving him with a 0.64 ERA in 14 frames. Austin Voth covered the next three innings, allowing a run in the eighth when Duran singled, took third on another hit and scored on a groundout. Cionel Pérez’sscoreless top of the ninth was only his second hitless appearance in his past 10 games.
Continued solid outings will be needed as a pair of key relievers make progress toward returning from injury. Making his first rehabilitation appearance after recovering from a right elbow flexor strain, Dillon Tate allowed a run on two hits with two strikeouts for High-A Aberdeen on Tuesday. Mychal Givens, on the injured list with left knee inflammation, is expected to have his first rehab outing later this week.
“How about Baumann, Voth and Cionel? That was awesome,” Hyde said. “That’s a highlight for me tonight.”
Red Sox at Orioles
Wednesday, 1:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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