Baltimore Orioles: Breaking down Kyle Bradish’s masterpiece win

Brilliant Kyle Bradish might have a ring to it, but even if it doesn’t, his stuff was electric last night earning his first win with the Baltimore Orioles.

Attention, attention read all about it! The Baltimore Orioles are on a winning streak, and they have won five out of their last six. Last night the O’s traveled to St. Louis for the first time since before some of you have been born, and they called on the rookie righty to take the mound.

Kyle Bradish broke out in his most dominant start of his early career last night as he went seven strong, and struck out 11 on his way to his first Major League victory. Everything he threw was golden, and he has the Cardinals red-hot bats kept at bay for the majority of the game.

For someone (Bradish) who had struggled in the minors with control and a poor walk rate, he was a master of his own control last night on the dish. The Baltimore Orioles 25-year-old didn’t issue a single walk last evening, also make this stat another MLB first for the rookie.

Baltimore Orioles: Breaking down Kyle Bradish’s masterpiece win

How did he pitch so well and get all the way through seven innings, something that not many Orioles can do. Let’s start with his heater. Bradish’s fastball had incredible life as he threw it for strikes 51% of the time. His changeup, although not thrown a ton, made hitters miss and get locked up due to how well his fastball was performing.

For as good as Kyle Bradish’s heater was, his breaking stuff was pure filth last night against the Cards. 41% of his wiffs, or called third strikes came from either his curveball or slider. He has St. Louis hitters on their toes all evening, and they never really got a read on him until the 6th inning.

In back to back at bats, Bradish was up 0-2 against both Yadier Molina and Harrison Bader. Both times, his lightning bold of a slider got hung up, and crushed. Molina smacked a double into right-center, and then Bader made the Cardinals hopes come alive as he crushed one deep towards Cedric Mullins.

Ceddy made an attempt to leap at the ball, missed it, and then a game of human ping pong began to take place between he and Anthony Santander. With the Baltimore Orioles outfielders angerly in chase of the ball, Bader raced all the way back to home plate for an inside the park homer.

In moments past, the Orioles saw Bradish crumble under the pressure. Last night, things were different. After giving up back to back monster hits, Kyle proceeded to strike out the side, move into the 7th and go 1-2-3 with two more Ks to end the night. His masterpiece of a night went into the history books for the O’s, as he was the first pitcher to K 11 since Wei-Yin Chen in 2012.