Bradish strikes out 10, but Orioles’ defense guesses wrong and offense lags in 4-3 loss to Athletics

BALTIMORE–What happened? Kyle Bradish finally had a quality start, but it wasn’t enough for the Orioles. Bradish, who had been plagued by walks this season, pitched seven innings, six of them excellent, in the Orioles’ 4-3 loss to the Athletics before 39,311 on Friday night.

The large crowd was attracted by the Tupac bobblehead giveaway, and they cheered lustily for the Orioles (17-22), who managed just three hits against Jacob Lopez (3-2).

The Orioles are now winless in nine games against left-handed starters.

Bradish (1-5), allowed just one hit in the first four innings but gave up four in a three-run fifth. Zack Gelof’s single, which followed base hits by Jacob Wilson and Lawrence Buler, scored Wilson, and Nick Kurtz’s triple scored Butler and Gelof.

Manager Craig Albernaz called for a bunt defense against Gelof with Gunnar Henderson breaking from his shortstop position to cover third as third baseman Weston Wilson charged the hitter. Gelof hit the ball where Henderson had been positioned.

“That’s where they bunt and Gelof is one of their big bunt guys,” Albernaz said. “And so we set up in a bunt play, and this is from Adley [Rutschman] I guess, when Gelof was getting in the box they were yelling from the dugout, ‘Swing it.’ So he put the ball in play and found the hole.”

Albernaz didn’t fault Henderson.

“That’s on me,” he said. “I put the bunt play on in the dugout. We were anticipating bunt. Prep work, everything that we knew about them was that’s where they bunt, especially Gelof. We were selling out to the bunt.”

Henderson didn’t blame Albernaz.

“That’s a play that we have but, yeah, given that situation, just knowing and going over scouting reports that we have, they thought it was a pretty good situation he was going to lay down a bunt,” he said. “But obviously he didn’t. So, we thought we knew how it was going to go, but obviously it didn’t work out.”

Bradish struck out a season-high 10 and walked just one. He’d walked at least three in each of his seven starts this season.

Pete Alonso hit his eighth home run in the fourth, and Adley Rutschman hit his fifth with one out in the sixth.

Lopez left after Rutschman’s home run. Justin Sterner, Scott Barlow and Joel Kuhnel retired eight straight Orioles. Jack Perkins walked Rutschman to lead off the ninth. He scored on Samuel Basallo’s two-out single.

Hogan Harris walked Leody Taveras and struck out Jeremiah Jackson for the final out.

Trey Gibson, recalled earlier in the day when Cade Povich went on the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, allowed a run in the top of the eighth on Wilson’s two-out single.

Blaze Alexander, who was set to start at third base, was a late scratch due to right calf tightness. He was replaced by Wilson. Albernaz said Alexander should be able to play on Saturday.

How well did Bradish pitch? He threw 96 pitches and looked sharp.

“I’d say the curveball has probably felt the best the whole year,” Bradish said. “I think we just needed to uptick the usage, and that’s kind of what we talked about going into this start. Try to uptick the usage of the curveball to try to protect some other pitches, and today it played well, so we just rolled with it.”

Rutschman was pleased to see Bradish throw seven innings after so many short starts.

“Huge, just for where we’re at. I think tonight, especially, having him go seven was really big for us,” he said.

“I mean, he looked phenomenal tonight. I thought he did a really good job of just locating the fastball and working his spins off of that,” he said “I thought everything looked really sharp and just executed the plan well. So I’m really proud of him tonight, and I thought he did an amazing job.”

Why can’t the Orioles beat left-handers? Albernaz said the 0-9 record against lefties is frustrating.

“It’s an anomaly right now, I think,” Albernaz said. “We’re trying to solve that problem. That’s why we try to get our guys in there to get at-bats, even off of righties, try to not let guys sit too long. That’s our Achilles’ heel right now. Us as a coaching staff, we’ve got to solve that problem here very quickly.”

Henderson, whose average is now .198, was hitless in three at-bats but did have a 10-pitch walk.

“Obviously we’ve got guys that can hit both sides on the mound and, yeah, I feel like it’s a matter of time,” Henderson said. “It’s just one of those crazy baseball things that you see happen. So, yeah, I’m not too worried.”

What does it mean? Bradish pitched well and the Orioles had only four hits. Most times, they’ll win a game pitched that well.

What’s the word? “That’s the KB that we know right there. He did a great job of attacking the strike zone, get the two fastball shapes going. The curveball to me was outstanding tonight. Used it to righties and lefties. He had great bite to it, same line as the four-seam.”-Albernaz on Bradish

What’s the stat of the day?  7. Bradish’s seven innings tied Trevor Rogers’ Opening Day start for the longest of the season.

What’s going on in the minor leagues? In his first outing for Triple-A Norfolk, Tyler Wells gave up an unearned run on a hit in 1 1/3 innings in the Tides’ 9-1 loss to Gwinnett in the first game of a doubleheader.

Sam Huff’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth gave Norfolk a 3-2 win in the second game.

Jackson Holliday walked three times, and Thomas Sosa hit a two-run home run in Double-A Chesapeake’s 5-1 win over Erie.

Maikol Hernandez and Elis Cuevas hit home runs in the 11^th inning to give High-A Frederick an 11-10 win over Jersey Shore.

Reed Trimble and Leandro Arias also homered. Yeiber Cartaya pitched five scoreless innings, allowing one hit.

Christian Rodriguez allowed one run on eight hits in six innings as Single-A Delmarva beat Salem, 3-2. Junior Aybar hit a two-run home run.

What’s next? Shane Baz (1-3, 4.99) will start against Aaron Civale (3-1, 2.95) on Saturday at 4:05 p.m.

Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com