Manager Craig Albernaz Hangs Starter Kyle Bradish Out To Dry, Orioles Barely Win Anyway

Things were going entirely too well for the 2026 Baltimore Orioles.

After a 13-1 drubbing of the Cardinals on Tuesday to start a crucial nine-game road trip, they were cruising up 7-0 after two innings. This group, with one of the worst starting lineups in MLB all season, had scored 20 runs in 11 innings, Pete Alonso continued a ridiculous 17-game tear with another opposite field homer and their highest-paid pitcher, Kyle Bradish was staked to a huge lead against a quickly-fading opponent that had to go back to a thinned out bullpen again.

So of course they made a meal of it. Of course, Craig Albernaz, that bumbling, wannabe skipper of theirs, who tried to bully the media again Tuesday after being unable to keep his story straight about Alonso’s calf, left Bradish in way too long. It’s just what he does and this is just what this franchise has been for over two years now.

Anyway, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who had four hits and is on fire the last week, delivered his fourth hit of the game to drive in Samuel Basallo in the top of the ninth for an 8-7 win at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, taking the series. But few individuals are more important in this lost season than Bradish, and the way the manager let him suffer without intervening is another indication this team will win nothing with him a part of it.

The big takeaway here isn’t where they stand in the ridiculous Wild Card standings in the pathetic American League. They were never build for October. It’s Bradish. He’s been showing signs of distress and fatigue for a while, he threw less than 40 innings each of the prior two seasons due to the timing of his Tommy John surgery and they insist on stretching him and pushing him.

A six-man rotation seemed inevitable. We’ll see how Bradish holds up in September, but he totally fell apart in the fifth inning and Albernaz’s inactivity was as responsible for it getting that bad as anything. Bradish gave up a single, got a flyout, then walked consecutive batters. You could tell right here he was losing it.

“The back-to-back walks hurt in the fifth,” Albernaz observed in his post-game press conference.

We got a quick mound visit, that was it.

Alec Burleson, just back from the minors, jumped a first pitch for a hit, just like Bryan Torres did to open the inning, and still Albernaz did nothing. Jordan Walker lined a ball to left that Dylan Beavers should have caught and didn’t. So now it’s 7-4, with two on.

“If he catches that ball, who knows,” Albernaz mustered, I guess thinking that was a good reason to keep his struggling starter out there.

Bradish was really laboring and now let down by his defense; bench jockey probably eating seeds and thinking about which beat writer he wants to try to embarrass postgame. Still nothing from him.

Nathan Church doubles to left center. Finally, Bradish is pulled.

Alex Hoppe comes in, an inherited runner scores on a ground-out after a steal of third base. Bradish had to eat nine hits over 4 1/3, with seven earned runs and two walks. All that pounding and just one homer – a solo shot – and he struck out just four of the 23 batters he faced, throwing 91 pitches.

Bradish has failed to complete five innings in three of his last six starts, but damn if they weren’t going to force him to try here. He has allowed 41 hits in 29 2/3 IP over those six starts with a 6.08 ERA and 1.76 WHIP in a lost season in which this team sold at the trade deadline. They gave Bradish a $100M extension and their really going to entrust this lightweight pretend manager to navigate this?

They are asking for trouble. Albernaz clowns himself by acting incredulous whenever probed about innings limits. Probably a good time to skip Bradish a start; which means these jokers will do nothing.

At Least They Started Strong

You knew this offense would cool off, and it did. The seven-run spurt was fun though. They sprayed the ball to all fields and manufactured runs a and Basallo busted his hump for infield singles. Leody Taveras hit a three-run bomb and Alonso (at DH with the calf issue) kept doing his thing.

“It’s almost unreal to watch,” Encarnacion-Strand said of Alonso on MASN postgame, “and it’s been great to be his teammate.”

Of course Gunnar Henderson, arguably the worst hitting slugger in MLB on the road this season and coming off a terrible Tuesday stayed in the three hole, and went one-for five (.692 OPS) and failed to deliver again with two outs and RISP (.400 OPS in those situations this season, somehow) and it turns out with Albernaz intent on letting Bradish fully meltdown that every run was going to matter.

Andrew Kittredge put two on in the ninth but got out the jam with Jackson Holliday making a nifty sliding play to help him out.

Bird Seed

Right fielder Tyler O’Neill probably played his final game of the season. He went on the IL with a rotator cuff strain from a diving catch he made recently. The veteran has been injury prone for years. The Orioles, short on middle infielders, added Luis Vazquez to the active roster.

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