ARLINGTON — Cody Bradford keeps a meticulous notebook that tracks each of his outings. He was class valedictorian at Aledo. Not much gets past him.
This factoid did though.
“Uh, I didn’t know I only threw six [balls] through four innings,” Bradford said Wednesday when told that 29 of his first 35 pitches were thrown for strikes.
He was too dialed in to notice.
Bradford, who pitched his career-worst start last Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, bounced back with possibly his best to date. The 26-year-old left-hander threw seven scoreless innings, allowed five hits, zero walks and struck out six batters in the Texas Rangers’ 2-0 win vs. the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday at Globe Life Field.
And, yes, he only threw six balls in his first four innings before Alejandro Kirk worked a full count and snapped the perfect game bid with a single to lead off the fifth.
“That could’ve been his best start,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said, “and it’s hard to say that because he’s had some good ones. He was right on tonight. He just looked determined to bounce back off a rough outing there in Arizona.”
Bradford allowed a career-high eight earned runs on nine hits in 3⅔ innings in the aforementioned outing against Arizona.
“You’ve just got to try and digest what happened,” Bradford said. “See if you can make adjustments, whether if it’s gameplan went wrong or poor execution or a little bit of both, and then you flush it. You try not to find your identity off the field with your success on the field or with a bad outing.”
Bradford retired the first 12 batters he faced Wednesday and needed just 35 pitches to do so. He stranded runners at second and third base with no outs in the fifth via two flyouts and a strikeout, left a runner on second in the sixth and stranded two more on base in the seventh.
The Rangers took a two-run lead in the sixth after Wyatt Langford led the inning off with a single vs. right-hander Bowden Francis and Adolis García hit a go-ahead home run into left field. García, whose home run was his 23rd of the season and just his third since Aug. 18, also made a leaping catch at the right field wall in the top of the third inning to rob Toronto’s Addison Barger of extra bases.
“Adolis is a fan favorite,” Bradford said. “I know all my friends and family, here local in the area, every time I ask them ‘Who’s your favorite player? Not me, obviously, you can’t pick me I’m your family.’ Oh, ‘Adolis García, we love seeing him play.’”
The Rangers do too.
Bradford included.
“It does give you a lot of confidence to throw the ball over the plate,” Bradford said, “and to not throw balls.”
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