Taj

Bradley

Bradley blanked the Royals for the first five innings, but he gave up a pair in his sixth and final frame and appeared to be in line for a hard-luck loss. A Royce Lewis walk-off triple prevented that, but Bradley certainly pitched well enough to pick up a win while allowing three hits and three walks against the aforementioned punchouts. The 25-year-old has been outstanding in July, and he’s now the owner of a 3.65 ERA and 139/49 K/BB in his first full season in the Twin Cities. Bradley will get a chance to face the struggling Mariners’ lineup over the weekend in Seattle.

He struck out five and walked three; the only damage was a Patrick Bailey solo home run that was the game’s lone run until the eighth inning. Bradley was outdueled by Gavin Williams and left in line for the loss. Bradley averaged 97.5 mph with his fastball and touched 100, but didn’t get many whiffs with his arsenal -- just 16 percent of swings against him missed the ball. Bradley bounced back well from a disappointing start against the Cubs last time out and should be on the mixed-league start line against the depleted Royals next week.

Bradley surrendered a solo homer in the first, two runs on a single, a walk and a double in the second and two more runs on two walks, a single and a double in the third. If not for the free baserunners, it would have been a fine outing. As is, he took his first loss since June 9. Bradley fanned six. He’s 12th in the majors with 124 strikeouts but also tied for 14th with 43 walks. He’ll take a 3.85 ERA into his next start in Cleveland.

He’ll be followed by Taj Bradley on Saturday afternoon and Zebby Matthews on Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The expectation is that Joe Ryan would then start on Monday against the Guardians in Cleveland. Ober is coming off of a decent first half where he registered a 4.40 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and a 51/19 K/BB ratio over 71 2/3 innings in his first 13 starts.

Bradley was outstanding again, and this makes back-to-back starts where the 25-year-old has struck out double-digit hitters. The only run allowed was a solo homer by Rhys Hoskins, and sans that, he had zero issue disposing of the Cleveland lineup while picking up his eighth victory of the season and lowering his ERA to 3.67. After going through a bit of a dip in the middle of June, Bradley has really looked the part, and he’ll get a chance to keep it going against the lowly Angels on Sunday.

This was the good version of Bradley. His velocity was up a bit and his fastball sat just above 98 mph and touched 100 mph a couple of times. With that, he had no fear challenging the Astros’ hitters with it in the zone. Apart from that, he had solid command of his secondaries. The Astros have a very right-handed heavy lineup and Bradley used his more slider-ish cutter breaking down and away against them. Also, he was mostly consistent with his splitter below the zone and even stole a few called strikes with it early in the count when he needed to. His 11 strikeouts matched a career-high and he now has a 3.86 ERA, 102 strikeouts, and 38 walks through 88 2/3 innings this season. He’s lined up to face the Guardians next time out in his final outing before the All-Star break.

Bradley scattered just three hits and three walks on the evening. He shut the Rockies out through the first seven innings, then returned for the eighth where he allowed a pair of hits before turning the ball over to the bullpen — and both runners ultimately scored. The 25-year-old hurler got 14 swings and misses on 99 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 29 percent. He’ll see if he can replicate this strong effort and further improve upon his 3.98 ERA and 1.28 WHIP when he squares off against the Astros in Houston on Wednesday.

Both runs scored on Jorge Barrosa’s homer in the fifth. Fortunately, Bradley had a little 16-0 lead before that happened. It would have been nice if he had been a bit more efficient and could have gone six or maybe even seven innings in the blowout, but that’s not Bradley’s game. At least he improved to 6-3 with his first win in six starts since coming off the IL. He’ll take a 4.11 ERA into a very promising matchup at home against the Rockies next week.

Bradley allowed five hits, and he struck out seven against one walk. Three of his four runs came off homers, and outside of those roundtrippers, it was a solid outing for the 25-year-old. It’s his best start since coming off the injured list, and an encouraging one after struggling in his previous few outings. Far from perfect, but encouraging. He’ll try and build on this outing against the Diamondbacks on Saturday in Arizona.

Bradley was off to a really nice start until Buster Olney called him underrated on Aor. 18. Since then, Bradley has served an IL stint and walked 19 while giving up 25 runs in 37 1/3 innings, which amounts to a 6.02 ERA. He gave up three homers, walked three and issued two wild pitches tonight. He’ll stay in the rotation, of course, and face the Cardinals on Sunday, but no one should be very enthused about him at this point.