Right-hander Taj Bradley delivered a dominant performance, striking out 10 batters over seven innings to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 3-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday at Target Field.
Bradley improved to 8-3 on the season, allowing only three hits and no walks.
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He retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced, relying on a four-seam fastball averaging over 97 mph along with an effective cutter and splitter.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt praised Bradley's outing. "He had two good off-speed pitches ...
he was phenomenal," Vogt said. "We were not able to lay off anything down as a whole and it showed.
When a guy's throwing 98 and they're good, that's what happens."
Cleveland's only run came on a 416-foot solo home run by Rhys Hoskins in the second inning. Hoskins noted the difficulty of adjusting to Bradley's sequencing.
"When the guy has 99 in the tank, a good fastball, and then just throwing two off-speeds where he wants to, you kind of have to pick," Hoskins said.
"He tunneled well with his fastball. He threw some down and I think that got us to chase down and away on him.
He just executed pitches."
Guardians starter Joey Cantillo took the loss despite allowing zero earned runs over five innings.
A series of defensive miscues in the second inning led to two unearned runs for Minnesota. Vogt credited Cantillo for navigating the difficult inning.
