Kyle Bradish was back in his dominant form tonight through four scoreless innings. The only hit was an infield single. He struck out six batters, the last four with his curveball. Twelve of the first 14 were retired, and nobody walked.

Then, the fifth inning happened. The first three Athletics singled, the rally starting with another infield hit, and Zack Gelof’s ground ball into left field tying the score.

Nick Kurtz tripled into the right field corner on a sharp bouncer down the right field line, another ball catching dirt and causing trouble.

Bradish stranded him and went back to his scoreless ways, giving the Orioles seven innings in a 4-3 loss before an announced crowd of 39,311 at Camden Yards.

“He looked phenomenal tonight,” said catcher Adley Rutschman. “I thought he did a really good job of just locating the fastball and working his spins off of that. 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.”

Bradish allowed three runs and five hits, walked one and struck out 10 – one short of his career high. He threw 96 pitches, 60 for strikes, and lowered his ERA from 5.03 to 4.83.

This is the ace version of Bradish that the Orioles waited for and really needed.

They also could have used a win after going 2-5 on their road trip, but their record is 17-22 overall and 0-9 against opposing left-handed starters.

“That’s the KB that we know right there,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “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. Yeah, he looked really good tonight.”

“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.”

Trey Gibson began to warm in the sixth when Bradish issued his only walk, but strikeout No. 9 ended the inning. Bradish retired the side in order in the seventh.

Pete Alonso extended his hitting streak to nine games with his fourth home run this month to break a scoreless tie in the fourth inning. He also called for a mound conference in the fifth after Gunnar Henderson bobbled Jeff McNeil’s grounder that should have resulted in a double play following Gelof’s RBI single. Jeremiah Jackson retrieved the ball and got the out at first base, and Kurtz tripled to give the Athletics a 3-1 lead.

“Just kind of got myself on an in-between hop and, yeah, I was trying to obviously turn two there and just didn’t catch the ball first,” Henderson said.

“(Bradish) did phenomenal. I should have made that play and that would have been one less run and then we come out on top. So yeah, put that one on me. Definitely should’ve had that double play. That would have at least eliminated another run.”

Asked about Alonso’s mound visit, Bradish said, “Yeah, he just came in and said, ‘Keep making pitches. We’re going to make a play for you.’ Tried to just give me a little breather. It was a good message and unfortunately, that was probably my worst pitch of the day. I didn’t get the slider below the zone. Kind of hung out in the middle, the middle of the plate, and he hit it down the line. So I appreciate what Pete did there.”

Rutschman cut the lead to 3-2 in the sixth with a line drive home run into the bullpen on the last pitch thrown by Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez.

Gibson’s second major league appearance came in relief in the eighth, after the Orioles recalled him this afternoon, and Jacob Wilson’s RBI single gave the Athletics a 4-2 lead. Gibson allowed three hits in the inning. He worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth.

“Bullpen taxed,” Albernaz said, explaining why he used Gibson. “Outstanding job by Trey go cover those two innings for us and kind of reset the bullpen. We had not many guys available tonight.”

Rutschman drew a leadoff walk against Jack Perkins in the bottom of the ninth and he scored with two outs on Samuel Basallo’s single. Left-hander Hogan Harris replaced Perkins, walked Leody Taveras and struck out Jackson.

“The past four games our at-bats have been unbelievable,” Henderson said. “Top to bottom, we’ve had great at-bats and we’re setting ourselves up to get there and, yeah, we battled tonight. Obviously, didn’t score as many runs as we have previously, but I was happy with the at-bats we had tonight.”

Orioles crossed up by Gelof
Albernaz put on a bunt play in the fifth with two Athletics runners on base and no outs, figuring that Gelof would play small ball to advance the runners. Weston Wilson broke in and Henderson broke to third, and Gelof’s grounder scooted into left field.

“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, 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.”

Ideally, the infielders would wait until the batter squares to bunt.

Albernaz agreed but added, “That’s on me. 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.”

Said Henderson: “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. But obviously he didn’t. So we thought we knew how it was going to go, but obviously it didn’t work out.”

Losing to lefties
This isn’t just a 2026 issue. It’s happened in the past, too.

The Orioles not only fell to 0-9 against lefty starters, but they scored only twice with three hits in 5 1/3 innings against a pitcher with a 6.60 ERA before tonight.

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

Alexander update
Blaze Alexander was removed from the lineup with right calf tightness, but he’s expected to be available Saturday.

Let’s see how he feels after he wakes up.

“During defensive work before the game, he just felt tightness in his calf, so he was a late scratch and he was unavailable tonight,” Albernaz said. “But he got treatment all game. It sounds like he should be fine for tomorrow.”

Henderson not hurt tonight by strikeouts
Henderson batted second tonight, with Taylor Ward moving into the leadoff spot against Lopez. His 54 strikeouts in 38 games before tonight easily led the club and ranked third in the American League and sixth in the majors.

Henderson drew a 10-pitch walk in the first inning, followed by the usually chucking of bat and equipment toward the dugout. He also grounded out, flied out and bounced out.

Albernaz doesn’t seem interested in lowering Henderson.

“To me, with Gunnar, you just leave him put,” Albernaz said this afternoon. “The track record speaks for itself, the talent. He’s just one swing away, and the last game was very encouraging with what he was feeling at the plate, his approach and his feedback on that. You take all that into account.

“You talk with the hitting coaches, how the work is going, and you feel confident in leaving him in the top of the order.”

The Orioles put runners on the corners with one out after Rutschman’s single to left field, but Alonso popped up and Tyler O’Neill grounded out.

Down on the farm
Triple-A Norfolk’s Levi Wells allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings in Game 1 of a doubleheader against Gwinnett. Tyler Wells made his first appearance with the Tides and allowed an unearned run and two hits with two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. José Barrero hit his seventh home run.

Albert Suárez started Game 2 and allowed two runs and five hits in four innings.

Jackson Holliday played second base at Double-A Chesapeake and went 0-for-1 with three walks and a run scored. Thomas Sosa hit a two-run homer.

Reed Trimble homered for High-A Frederick on his injury rehab assignment, and Vance Honeycutt had a two-run double. Yeiber Cartaya allowed one hit and struck out six in five scoreless innings.

Single-A Delmarva’s Christian Rodriguez allowed one run in six innings. First baseman Junior Aybar had a single, double and two RBIs.