Cody Bradford works fifth straight quality start in Rangers’ win vs. Angels

ARLINGTON — Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux knew from his first Spring Training with Cody Bradford that there was something good with this kid. Even so, nobody could’ve known or planned on Bradford doing what he’s done this season.

With a fair amount of rotational depth, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy admits that the staff entered the season expecting Bradford to operate in more of a swingman type role. Bradford entered Spring Training emphasizing the fact that he is a starting pitcher and he was competing for a spot in the Texas rotation.

Outside of a months-long stint on the injured list, Bradford has done more than enough to prove he’s a big league starting pitcher.

After tossing six innings of one run ball in the Rangers’ 3-1 win over the Angels on Thursday night, the left-hander has now recorded a quality start in each of his last five outings.

Bradford had a 1.40 ERA in three starts before landing on the injured list with nagging back/rib issues that lasted months longer than expected. He had one rough relief outing against the Cardinals in his return from the injured list, but he’s looked as good as ever since then, with a 2.88 ERA in seven starts after the St. Louis outing.

Bradford has admitted that he’s even surprised himself a little bit with how good he’s been this year. But he credits that to just being able to trust his stuff more each and every day.

A big part of that has been his curveball usage.

Bradford spent the offseason working on reintroducing the curveball to his repertoire. It was a pitch he leaned on in college, but it was scrapped once after it got hammered during his first full season of pro ball in High-A.

After working on it all offseason and Spring Training, he came into his second big league season hoping to prove he could use the curveball as his third pitch.

“This may sound a little weird, but it was the first game against the Cubs [that I realized it worked],” Bradford said. “Over the offseason, Mike said, ‘Hey, come to Spring Training with the curveball that you throw a strike.’ Throughout the spring, he challenged me to keep using it. In the first game against the Cubs, I got a strikeout with the curveball. He told me I need to trust that I could keep doing it. And it’s little things like that that just kind of surprised me. You don’t know how good your stuff is gonna play until you just execute it.”