KANSAS CITY -- Taj Bradley pitches for the big moments.
With some of the best pure stuff in the game, the Twins were hoping to see the 25-year-old mature and grow this season into the type of pitcher they know can hold down a spot at the top of the rotation.
After Bradley’s first two starts, he’s been exactly that. And the right-hander’s done it when the pressure has been greatest.
Bradley shoved for six scoreless frames to lead the Twins to a 5-1 win over the Royals on Thursday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, staving off the sweep and setting up the good mood for Friday’s home opener against the Rays.
Twice the game hung in the balance early, but twice Bradley responded to prove yet again why Minnesota acquired him in a three-team deal at the Trade Deadline last season.
The first? Against 2024 AL MVP runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. with a pair of runners on base and two outs in the third inning. Bradley should have been out of the early jam when he forced a popup into foul territory by the Royals’ dugout, but the weather just did not cooperate for this three-game set in Kansas City, and the wind caused it to drop.
That’s when Bradley took matters into his own hands.
With two strikes, Bradley fired a 100 mph heater -- the fastest pitch by a Twins starting pitcher since pitch tracking began in 2008 -- right past Witt for a called strike to escape the jam.
“It kind of turns you into a different person, you know?” Bradley said. “And you don’t realize it until you get out of it, what you were saying to yourself or the kind of adrenaline rush you had going into those at-bats, those pitches and the thought process going through that stuff. It gets you excited.”
Bradley yelled, clapping his hand to his glove and skipping off the mound in celebration. He set the first eight batters of the game down, but two straight Royals reached to set up his matchup with Witt -- that’s what brought out the velocity.
“It was 100 [mph] with like 23, 24 inches of vert, you don’t see that very often,” manager Derek Shelton said. “And we’re talking about [against] a guy that’s led baseball in hits the last two years and is one of the best players. I think [Bradley] wanted that at-bat. He went back and got it. It’s good to see.
“We’ve talked about it with Taj, there’s going to be maturation, and today we saw another step of maturation.”
That was most obvious just an inning later. Bradley was inducing soft contact, but the Royals loaded the bases in the fourth despite two balls not leaving the infield. Instead of getting frustrated or overwhelmed, Bradley locked down once again and got Lane Thomas to chase a low-and-away cutter on a check swing.
Another big out, another big clap and skip.
“Any strikeouts with runners on is a big one for me, especially when it gets you out of the inning like that,” Bradley said. “So [a] jam like that … I feel like it was a clutch moment and a big moment for the game. I just kept the momentum riding.”
Bradley was already at 79 pitches with a pair of arms warming up in the bullpen when he took the mound in the fifth, but they wouldn’t be needed. He worked a quick 1-2-3 fifth and earned his opportunity to go back out for the sixth, working around a one-out single to notch his first quality start of the season.
“A lot of the times, I just keep my head straight, especially in the dugout because I don’t want the manager to look over and think I’m ready to come out of the game,” Bradley said of running back out in the sixth at 90 pitches. “I just keep my head straight, talk myself through the at-bats. … Allowing me to go through the sixth, I thought that was huge.”
For Shelton, it was a no-brainer. Thursday afternoon showed the type of pitcher the Twins believe they will get every time Bradley steps on the mound. The clubhouse raves about his stuff, and the coaching staff exemplified its confidence in Bradley by slotting him in as the No. 2 starter to begin the season.
He not only loves the big moments, but he’s learning from, and excelling in them, too.
“I feel great. I feel at ease. I feel happy,” Bradley said. “A lot of the work we put in during the offseason and in Spring Training has been paying dividends. Just keep that ball rolling.”