The Orioles need to get Bradish back on track.
Kyle Bradish walked off the mound at Camden Yards on Wednesday with a familiar mix of frustration and something that looked a lot like belief.
The Baltimore Orioles lost 8-5 in 10 innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks, dropping the Birds to 9-9 on the year while Arizona improved to 11-8.
Bradish gave up four runs on eight hits over six innings, but he was the one guy in an Orioles uniform who walked out sounding genuinely encouraged.
Postgame, the right-hander spoke honestly about where he is and where he still wants to go.
"I'd say I feel better with each start," Bradish said. "Definitely not back to where I want to be or need to be. I think today, got unlucky with some hits with runners in scoring position, but at the end of the day, just got to go out there and put up zeros. Can't have a two-out walk that comes around to score. I just need to be better with shutdown innings."
A Rough Start to the Year
Through four starts, Bradish is 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP across 19.2 innings.
The walks have been the real problem, as he has issued 10 of them while striking out 21.
In his season debut against Minnesota, his fastball velocity sat at 93.5 with the sinker and 93.3 with the four-seamer, both down from last year's 94.8 average.
The next time out against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he got roughed up for four runs in four innings and fell to 0-2.
The numbers are ugly right now, and nobody in the Baltimore clubhouse is hiding from that.
What makes Wednesday different is how the stuff actually looked.
Bradish came out firing 97 and 98 in the first inning, struck out two of the first three hitters he faced, and worked a season-high six innings for the first time all year.
That's growth, even if the scoreboard didn't reward it.
Why There's Still Reason for Optimism
Bradish isn't the only reason Baltimore is treading water, but he might be one of the biggest reasons to believe things can turn.
He called Wednesday his best outing of the season and pointed to a few hits that dropped in at the wrong time with runners in scoring position.
A couple of the extra-base knocks that hurt him also came on balls the Orioles defense couldn't quite run down, which puts the line score in a different light.
Add in a full offseason of work, arm strength coming back after Tommy John surgery, and a late-season stretch in 2025 where he posted a 2.53 ERA over his final six starts, and the outline of the pitcher Baltimore signed up for is still there.
The American League East race is going to demand more from the rotation than what it has delivered so far, and Bradish sounds like someone who knows exactly what's being asked of him.
If he keeps building the way he says he is, the results will follow.