Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Kyle Bradish delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
HOUSTON — Former New Mexico State Aggie Kyle Bradish pitched a gem, throwing eight strong innings before two relievers completed the four-hitter to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 2-0 win over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
“He had a great slider tonight… (and got) a lot of bad swings on it against a really, really good club,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “What an impressive performance, going eight shutout on the road against the Houston Astros — pretty special.”
Rookie Bradish (2-5) limited Houston’s powerful offense to just a pair of singles and struck out six in the longest outing of his career to get his second win — first since May 10 against St. Louis.
“Just showing my ability against the best team… means a lot,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter who’s across the diamond, I’m going to go out there and try to do my thing every time.”
Cionel Pérez allowed consecutive singles to Yordan Alvarez and Albuquerque native Alex Bregman with one out in the ninth before retiring Kyle Tucker on a fly out. Dillon Tate took over and struck out former Oriole Trey Mancini to hand the American League-leading Astros their eighth shutout of the season and give him his third save.
“As fate has it, of course, (Mancini’s) the guy that comes up in a winning run situation,” Hyde said. “And Dillon Tate just made three outstanding pitches against him.”
Mancini went 0 for 3 with a walk in the first game against his former team since a trade last month after spending his entire career with the Orioles.
Ramon Urias provided the offense for the Orioles with a two-run shot off Cristian Javier (7-9) in the sixth to help them to their second straight win and the fourth in five games.
Lance McCullers Jr. allowed four hits across five scoreless innings in his third start of the season after missing the first four months of the season covering from a forearm injury he sustained in the playoffs last year.
“He got bested by the young man over there, Bradish,” manager Dusty Baker said. “(McCuller’s) threw a good game. He had good stuff. He was a little bit wild in the strike zone but he had a real good breaking ball tonight. Like I’ve always said the nod goes to the pitcher if you haven’t faced him before.”
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Javier yielded three hits and two runs with four strikeouts in his return to the bullpen after losing his spot as a starter when the Astros went to a five-man rotation.
The Orioles had two on with no outs in both the second and third innings, but McCullers was able to get out of trouble both times with the help of double plays.
There were two outs in the sixth when Kyle Stowers singled to right field. Urias followed with a soaring shot to the seats in left field to make it 2-0.
Bradish walked Alvarez with one out in the fourth before allowing his first hit of the game on a single to Tucker with two outs that extended his career-high hitting streak to 17 games. But Mancini struck out to end the inning.
That was the first of seven straight Bradish retired before Bregman singled to start Houston’s seventh. Bradish got right back on track and sat down the next six batters to end his night.
(Box score: Orioles 2, Astros 0)
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