Bradley is trying to get back on track after his absence from an injury.
Taj Bradley walked off the mound at PNC Park on Friday night knowing the stuff was there even when the results were not.
Making just his second start since coming back from right pectoral inflammation, the Minnesota right-hander pitched on a tight count and spent the night chasing a fastball he could put where he wanted.
He needed 87 pitches to get through four innings, struck out six, walked two and gave up four runs before handing the game to the bullpen.
Minnesota fell 6-5 when Bryan Reynolds lifted a two-run walk-off homer in the ninth that pushed the Pirates to 30-28.
Bradley did not dodge any of it afterward, pointing straight at his command instead of the radar gun.
"I didn't really have one pitch to pitch consistently with and find the zone with," Bradley said. "I feel like that would have taken me further in the game and had quicker at-bats. I just felt like not one pitch was there where I could strike it consistently back-to-back."
No Pitch He Could Trust
The stuff was there and the location kept getting away from him.
He leaned on his four-seam fastball, the pitch he throws close to half the time, and the velocity sat in the upper 90s after he touched 100 mph in his first start back.
Spotty command after two weeks off and a single rehab outing is pretty normal, even for an arm like his.
He came in with a 2.77 ERA over his first nine starts, a number that ticked up after Friday's four runs, but the fastball has carried him all year and turned him into a steady piece of the Minnesota rotation.
One bumpy night on a pitch limit is nothing to panic over.
Why Minnesota Needs Him
Patience makes sense here because Minnesota cannot afford for Bradley to be anything less than good.
They lost Pablo Lopez for the season to elbow surgery before the year even started, which yanked a proven arm out of a group that already had plenty of question marks.
Behind Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober, the Twins needed their younger starters to grow into bigger roles, and Bradley was one of the names they were banking on.
He came over from Tampa Bay last summer as a former top prospect who had never quite found steady footing, and for most of this season he has finally looked the part.
Friday stung because the loss dropped Minnesota to 27-31 and wasted a strong night from a bullpen that ate the final five innings.
Nothing about the outing pointed to a deeper problem, though, just a pitcher knocking the rust off after time away.
If the command catches up to the velocity over his next couple of turns, the version of Bradley that anchored Minnesota's rotation for long stretches this year is the one they will lean on the rest of the way.
