Bradish's return, unexpected contributions highlight O's series win over the Yankees

Just as the Orioles drew it up when this series began Monday night at Camden Yards.

OK, probably not. Even though they lost a starter in Grayson Rodriguez to injury during the Yankees series and now we know that Craig Kimbrel didn’t pitch once in the series, they would still shutdown a Yankees team that had scored 15 runs each on Saturday and Sunday at Milwaukee.

Oh, and Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna would hit big homers off lefty Carlos Rodón in the key series finale game. And Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb would record saves.

Yep, just as planned.

Sometimes it takes a village to win a key series or at least it takes an entire clubhouse. And the O’s got big contributions from many this series as they took three of four from the Yankees to gain the AL East lead by one game.

They were not looking to make any statements in the series. But in winning yet another division series, they probably did remind a few people which club is the defending AL East champion. For now, this division goes through Baltimore.

Manager Brandon Hyde remarked after Thursday’s win how much pitching talent was on the mound yesterday in the Kyle Bradish versus Carlos Rodón matchup.

Then the O’s got three homers over the third and fourth innings – from Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna – to match the total Rodón allowed his first six starts combined.

“That was a stuff matchup there with Rodón and Kyle,” said Hyde. “Because he’s (Rodón) got great stuff also and tough to hit, having a heckuva a year and punching out a lot of people. The command has really improved from his White Sox days. So, it was a real challenge and a couple of solo home runs there kind of got us going.

“But Mounty taking a slider down and in and depositing it into right-center. Jorgie with a great swing for a homer. You know, we got on a couple. I don’t if those were mistakes. The one to Mounty wasn’t a mistake, that was just unbelievable hitting. But that gave us some confidence that we could score some runs.”

They did, knocking Rodón out in the four-run fifth. His season high allowing runs was three before he gave up seven to the Orioles.

Yankees batters scored 30 runs their last two games at Milwaukee. Then they got just six in four games in Baltimore as O’s starters allowed five runs over 23 1/3 and the bullpen gave up just one run over 12 2/3 with one walk and 12 strikeouts.

During the series the O's reduced their team ERA from 3.87 to 3.57.

“That might have been our best-pitched series honestly,” Hyde said. “From the starts we got to how the bullpen pitched versus a really good offense. A team that was swinging the bats so well coming in. This series, we really, really threw the ball well.”

It was a series where Coulombe and Webb saved those first two games. Webb threw 2 2/3 scoreless this series with six strikeouts. Yankees batters took 18 swings at Webb pitches and whiffed on 12 of them.

“Unbelievable,” said Hyde. “And I’m not really giving him a layup when I give him the ball either. Middle of the order and big spots and tough guys to pitch to. Guys with unbelievable careers to this point. They are record-breaking, All Star-type players that he pitched so well. Great changeup. Outstanding.”

That was also kind of what Hyde was saying about Bradish’s return and his first big league game since the American League Division Series in October. A catcher’s interference call turned a 1-2-3 first inning later into a bases-loaded mess. But Bradish showed his poise and allowed just one run over 4 2/3 on 84 pitches in his season debut.

He got nine swings and misses with a fastball that touched 97. The Orioles had to be thrilled.

Bradish’s long road back had him not pitching during spring training and then throwing in Bowie and Norfolk before he found himself out there facing the Yankees in the Thursday Baltimore sun.

“Very relieved (to be back),” he said. “Very hard mentally just knowing it was going to be a long road. Was going to miss the first month of the season. It sucks, but we’re back now healthy. Excited.”

If he had to nitpick his outing, he was asked, in terms of what still needs to improve, he said he can find a few small things.

“Just wasted pitches. I think those sliders I threw early in counts were more two-strike sliders. So, just working on the 0-0 sliders for strikes and then kind of put away pitches. Not wasting fastballs up,” he said.

He looked at times like the pitcher that finished fourth for the AL Cy Young Award last winter and the Orioles welcomed him back with open arms.

“He threw the ball really well,” said catcher James McCann. “Just seeing that he wasn’t any different than who he was last year, that was great to see.

“You could sense the excitement early on. He’s back out on the field. I think this clubhouse is pretty excited to get someone like Kyle Bradish back on the mound for us.”

McCann was asked about the early series win versus New York.

“They’re important games. You know the weight of in-division opponents. You try not to make it more than what it is, just another game in April and May. But come September it’s very easy to look back and say, ‘If only we had won that game or had done this.’ And you don’t want to do that. We’re very happy to leave that series winning three of four.”

While Juan Soto went 6-for-14 in the series with a homer, Aaron Judge was 1-for-14. And the foursome of Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Volpe and Anthony Rizzo were a combined 5-for-54 over four games.

The O's must have been feeling pretty good about things when they boarded their charter last night for Cincinnati. The next road trip begins tonight. 

Basallo leaves game: Double-A Bowie's Samuel Basallo left the Baysox game last night after being hit by a pitch in the seventh inning. It appeared he was plunked on the right arm. John Rhodes pinch-ran for Basallo, who is batting .256 with a .716 OPS and had gone 0-for-2 with a run, walk and steal.

The Orioles announced that he left the game as a precaution. 

Basallo is ranked as the No. 11 prospect in the sport by Baseball America and No. 16 by MLBPipeline.com. Erie beat Bowie 11-3.

In Triple-A Norfolk's 10-6 win at Nashville, Coby Mayo homered for the fourth game in a row. He went 2-for-6 with a double and his International League leading 11th homer. He is batting .333 with a 1.080 OPS. Earlier this year Heston Kjerstad also homered in four straight games. Before this year no Tide had done that since Mark Johnson from April 8 -11, 2000.

The Tides are getting hot again and have won six in a row and are now 15-15.

Aberdeen won 7-1 in 10 innings at Brooklyn and Low-A Delmarva beat Fayetteville 4-3. In that game lefty pitcher Luis De León threw an immaculate first inning - all nine strikes and three strikeouts. For the night he went 4 2/3 allowing five hits and three runs with no walks and 10 strikeouts.

Click here to see video of De León getting his big inning.