Rays defeat Twins, Taj Bradley in his return to Tampa Bay
Published in Baseball
TAMPA, Fla. — Taj Bradley was welcomed back to Tropicana Field with an aerial assault.
His fifth pitch of the game, a 98-mph four-seam fastball at the top of the strike zone, was torched by Junior Caminero for a 450-foot home run. The pitch, which left Caminero’s bat at 111 mph, rapidly carried towards center field and landed in the netting above the batter’s eye.
Bradley, traded from the Rays to the Minnesota Twins in July, entered Friday’s 6-2 series opening loss with a 3-0 record and a 1.63 ERA. Demoted to Triple-A Durham before Tampa Bay dealt him in exchange for reliever Griffin Jax, Bradley finished his career with the Rays on a low note. His former team at least temporarily delayed his ascension.
Jonathan Aranda launched solo home runs off Bradley in the fourth and sixth innings, giving him the first multi-home run game of his career.
Caminero joined him in the multi-home run effort in the seventh. After barely hooking a pitch to left-field foul, Caminero drove the ensuing pitch 435 feet to center field. This time, the ball left his bat at 112.7 mph.
Bradley finished the game allowing six runs and throwing 93 pitches, only 51 of which were strikes, over 6 1/3 innings.
Rays starter Drew Rasmussen threw six innings and allowed only one run, a solo homer to Brooks Lee in the top of the fifth.
Reliever Trevor Martin let two men reach with no outs, but Bryan Baker was able to work out of the jam and secure the victory.
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