Kyle Bradish Gives Encouraging Update After Another Rough Start

Kyle Bradish Gives Encouraging Update After Another Rough Start

Kyle Bradish walked off the mound at Camden Yards on Wednesday with a familiar mix of frustration and something that looked a lot like belief.

The Baltimore Orioles lost 8-5 in 10 innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks, dropping the Birds to 9-9 on the year while Arizona improved to 11-8.

Bradish gave up four runs on eight hits over six innings, but he was the one guy in an Orioles uniform who walked out sounding genuinely encouraged.

Postgame, the right-hander spoke honestly about where he is and where he still wants to go.

"I'd say I feel better with each start," Bradish said. "Definitely not back to where I want to be or need to be. I think today, got unlucky with some hits with runners in scoring position, but at the end of the day, just got to go out there and put up zeros. Can't have a two-out walk that comes around to score. I just need to be better with shutdown innings."

A Rough Start to the Year

Through four starts, Bradish is 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP across 19.2 innings.

The walks have been the real problem, as he has issued 10 of them while striking out 21.

In his season debut against Minnesota, his fastball velocity sat at 93.5 with the sinker and 93.3 with the four-seamer, both down from last year's 94.8 average.

The next time out against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he got roughed up for four runs in four innings and fell to 0-2.

The numbers are ugly right now, and nobody in the Baltimore clubhouse is hiding from that.

What makes Wednesday different is how the stuff actually looked.

Bradish came out firing 97 and 98 in the first inning, struck out two of the first three hitters he faced, and worked a season-high six innings for the first time all year.