KANSAS CITY – In the span of six days, Taj Bradley completely flipped the script. The Rays’ right-hander went from one of his worst starts to one of his best.
Over 6 2/3 precise innings on Tuesday night, Bradley allowed just two hits and no runs as Tampa Bay opened a six-game road trip with a 5-1 victory over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The Rays moved one game back of the American League East-leading Yankees. New York lost, 5-4, to the Reds in 11 innings.
Bradley was perfect through 5 1/3 innings, retiring 16 consecutive Kansas City hitters until John Rave drew a one-out walk. Then, with two down, Jonathan India rifled an extra-base hit just inside the right-field line. The Rays got a break when the ball bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double, preventing Rave from scoring. Bradley then retired Bobby Witt Jr. on a liner to left.
The performance by Bradley was in sharp contrast to his previous outing, when he allowed seven runs (six earned) while lasting just 1 1/3 innings against the Orioles. Bradley said after that game that his biggest problem was falling behind in the count, and he was able to correct that problem against the Royals, with 57 strikes out of 87 pitches and 11 groundouts along the way.
The Rays received a two-run homer from Danny Jansen in the second inning. Kansas City throwing errors in the fourth and fifth innings allowed Tampa Bay to pad its lead to 4-0.
Bradley credited Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder with finding a delivery flaw that Bradley was able to fix after his last outing.
“I kind of lost one hitch where I wasn’t working my legs and hands the way I was supposed to,” Bradley said. “[Snyder] saw it and showed me the video from last year. It was more about the physical aspect of how my rhythm was through the delivery. Hands placement and getting back to the rhythm and timing I had last year and had kind of gotten away from.”
Bradley had gone three consecutive starts of four innings or fewer when he took the mound on Tuesday.
“He set a tone early with the strike-throwing and really built off that,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We were pretty pumped for Taj. It’s been a grind for him the last couple of starts, but he was able to rebound and really give us a good start today.”
The two-run homer by Jansen gave Bradley some margin for error as he cruised through the opening five innings on a hot night. Jansen added a two-strike sacrifice fly off Kansas City starter Kris Bubic in the fourth, and the Rays were off and running toward a 23rd victory in their past 32 games.
“Taj was attacking the zone,” Jansen said. “He did an outstanding job mixing the two-seam, the cutter, the four-seam. He has four wipeout pitches to put guys away. We were able to get some weak contact, some soft ground balls.”
It wasn’t until Salvador Perez’s two-out single in the seventh that Cash went to the bullpen.
The Rays were quick to salute Bradley with a plethora of high-fives as he came off the mound after his rebound outing that lowered his ERA to 4.57.
“Everybody is picking each other up at the right time,” Bradley said. “That’s what this team is all about. From Rookie ball until now, they’ve had confidence in me and trusted me.”