Kyle Bradish jogged out of the dugout and hopped over the foul line in between home plate and first base. He pounded his fist into his glove.
Bradish hadn’t done that on a big league mound in 438 days. The 28-year-old’s long wait to return from Tommy John surgery was officially over.
“There was definitely a lot of emotions just throughout the whole day, a lot of nerves as the game got closer and just looking back at kind of the journey that I’ve been on for the past 14 months to get back to where I am here,” Bradish said.
It didn’t look like Bradish missed any time. He allowed just four hits and two runs in six innings in the Orioles’ 5-0 loss to the Red Sox, throwing 81 pitches in front of the Camden Yards faithful.
Bradish had last pitched in a major league game on June 14, 2024. A lot has changed since then.
Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn and Anthony Santander all registered an at-bat against the Phillies that day. Trevor Rogers was still a Marlin. Baltimore was 21 games over .500 with Brandon Hyde as its manager.
Bradish can’t help Baltimore reach the playoffs this year, as he did when he finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting in 2023. But his start marked a monumental return to the mound nonetheless.
“It’s a really big deal to bring a guy back from Tommy John, especially of his caliber,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “We’re just excited to have him back.”
Mansolino wanted Bradish, who pitched to a 4.91 ERA in six rehab appearances, to just “be him.” The righty did that, exceeding his skipper’s expectations.
Bradish’s first pitch back was a 96.8 mph fastball, about two ticks higher than what he’s averaged in his career. Every single Bradish fastball in the first inning was thrown harder than his career average.
Mansolino noted that Bradish was “huffing and puffing” a bit in the opening frame, which is unusual for him, but chalked that up to the emotions of the return.
A Roman Anthony pop-up started a one-two-three first inning for Bradish, who struck out Alex Bregman swinging on a nasty slider outside the zone and Jarren Duran looking on a full-count sinker to close the frame.
Bradish likely wasn’t going to be perfect, though. Trevor Story made sure of that with a solo home run on the righty’s first pitch of the second inning, a slider that was left in the zone. David Hamilton greeted Bradish with the same fate leading off the third frame, slugging a first-pitch middle-middle sinker for a homer.
But as he did in the first, Bradish struck out a pair in both innings.
Bradish had six strikeouts in his first three innings and 10 total — a positive sign that his stuff is still as impressive as it was pre-surgery, even if the pitch-to-pitch consistency isn’t quite back yet.
All four of Bradish’s pitches — four-seam fastball, sinker, curveball and slider — completed at least one strikeout. His 10 strikeouts marked the fifth double-digit strikeout of his career.
“Bradish, we’ve talked about him, is the type of guy that if he stays healthy, is ace-type stuff,” Mansolino said.
Mansolino elected not to bring Bradish out for the seventh inning, ensuring he didn’t go above his highest pitch count (89) of any rehab outing. Throwing 85 pitches in Triple-A is very different than 85 pitches in the big leagues, according to Mansolino, who said that the Orioles will be “incredibly responsible” with Bradish.
For Bradish, the rest of this season is about re-establishing himself at the big league level. The Orioles will need the 2023 version of Bradish to compete for the playoffs in 2026. The right-hander flashed that ability against the Red Sox.
“Throughout the whole process, I really felt confident that I would get back to where I was,” Bradish said. “I think that I kind of proved that today.”
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox