In every sport they always warn about a potential sophomore slump. For MLBbro Taj Bradley, it seemed when the season began that term was destined to be his fate.
The Tampa Bay Rays had high expectation for Bradley coming into this season, following a rookie campaign where he flashed serious ace potential, but was derailed early due to a Pectoral Strain he suffered in spring training, causing him to miss the first six weeks of the season.
Tay Bradley Getting Back Into The Groove
When the 23-year-old second year melanated mound marauder returned, he was immediately thrown into the fire with matchups against the top teams in the AL East (NY Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox) equipped with a murderer’s row of lineups to get through.
Something any pitcher — let alone a sophomore phenom coming off injury — would struggle with which explains his 2-4 record.
However, if we look at the numbers this is not the up and down season Bradley had in his rookie campaign. His dominance is starting to show now that he is healthy and finding his footing in the Rays rotation.
Bradley’s Record Doesn’t Tell the Full Story: Tampa Rays Not Scoring For Him
Regardless of his early struggles, Taj Bradley’s numbers are significantly better across the board with a 3.81 ERA with 61 strikeouts and batters only hitting .213 against him. Not to mention the nasty splitter that’s been overpowering hitters, as evidenced by his 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings (top ten in MLB).
So, the question is with improvement being shown, why the 2-4 record? We should look no further than the other side of the plate.
The Rays aren’t putting up a bunch of runs on the board to support our MLBbro. They currently rank 26th out of 30 teams in home runs (70) and tied for 19th with a .236 batting average.
Bradley Pitching Great, Losing Games
If we dive deeper into Brantley’s record, two out of his four losses he only gave up one earned run with seven strikeouts. If we look at the final box score for both games, there’s a goose egg for Tampa Bay.
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