2 signs from Kyle Bradish's last start that show he's really back this time

Coming into the 2026 season, the Baltimore Orioles were expecting a lot from Kyle Bradish. The front office forewent acquiring the top of the rotation arm that everyone thought they needed because they believed that Bradish could be that guy for them. They had good reason to believe this, as Bradish had been one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy over the past three seasons. However, expecting a lot from a pitcher in their first full season back from Tommy John surgery is a dangerous game. When Bradish struggled early in the season, it looked as though the Orioles had put too many eggs in the Bradish basket. Bradish persevered and last night put up his best start of the season.

Bradish has had good starts before this season and then followed them up with duds. That's part of the process of returning from an injury. It's also arguable that his previous start against the Mariners was even more impressive, considering the quality of the opponent and the number of strikeouts he racked up. It wasn't just the fact that he held the Angels scoreless through eight innings that made last night's start impressive; it was how he looked doing it. Looking at the pitch data from the start, there are two clear signs that Kyle Bradish is the ace and is really back this time.

The Orioles need this version of Kyle Bradish

The first good sign was that Bradish held his velocity all the way to the end of his start. At the beginning of the season, Bradish consistently leaked velocity on his fastballs as the game went on. He'd start each game around 95-96 mph, and by the time he came out in the fifth inning, or so he'd be throwing 91-92.

Even when Bradish managed to stack a couple of good starts in a row this season, you could look at the pitch and see that as the game went on, the fastball would dip down to 91-92 for a couple of batters and then he'd get it back up to 94-95. So even though the trend wasn't as glaring, it was clear he was laboring.

Last night, Bradish's velocity held up much better late into the game. In the 6th inning, he was still pumping 96-97, which is well above average for him, and in the 8th inning, he was "down" at 94-95, which is right where he usually is. Not that throwing hard automatically makes you a better pitcher, but Bradish at 97 is just harder for hitters to deal with than Bradish at 91.

This is a very positive development for the Bradish and the Orioles. It means his arm is getting stronger as the season goes on and is not wearing down.

The other positive development from this start was the pitch mix that Bradish used to dominate the Angels. He threw 44% sinker and 35% slider. This is good news because Bradish, at his best, is an elite sinker-slider pitcher. He has other pitches like his four-seam and his curveball, but those pitches are not nearly as effective as his primary sinker-slider combo.

Early in the season, Bradish really struggled to locate his slider. He would bounce it in the dirt, and then he would hang it in the heart of the zone, making it very easy to either lay off or hit very hard. With the slider being wild, the two-seamer was less effective. To compensate for this, Bradish began to lean on his curveball more than ever before in his career. He had multiple starts where the curveball was his most thrown pitch, and although he saw some success with the curve, he was just never going to be as effective as a four-seam curveball guy as he is as a sinker-slider guy.

Seeing Bradish find success with his best two pitches makes the results he got last night feel much more sustainable than when he was getting by with his other pitches.

Even with these developments, Bradish isn't going to pitch eight shutout innings every time he takes the mound, but it is fair to expect that from here on out in 2026. Bradish is going to look much more like the pitcher he was before Tommy John surgery, and that's going to go a long way towards helping the Orioles get back into the playoff race.

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