Kyle Bradish deals and Leody Taveras deals with a new position to help Orioles defeat Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Of course the ball found Leody Taveras immediately. As soon as he stepped onto the infield dirt for the first time in his professional career, it was as if a magnet was attached to his glove.

This is baseball. When uncomfortable, the gods will test you.

“It’s crazy how those things happen,” Taveras said.

Taveras, playing third base in place of the injured Blaze Alexander, looked to infield coach Miguel Cairo for positioning instruction. A wave of the hand here, a shuffle there, then bang — a hard ground ball from Jose Siri. Taveras gloved it and fired to first, and while that throw wasn’t perfect, Pete Alonso scooped it and then gave Taveras a round of applause.

He deserved it for bearing with this bizarre situation in a bizarre Orioles (38-42) season full of bizarre moments.

Everything else in Monday’s 6-1 victory against the Los Angeles Angels went according to plan. The offense chugged right along, with designated hitter Coby Mayo’s three-run home run the major breakthrough. Right-hander Kyle Bradish bulldozed his way through eight scoreless innings.

But Taveras at third? That was downright weird, and it requires some explanation as to how this outfielder by trade borrowed a glove and manned the hot corner for five innings.

“Actually, it was kind of crazy how it happened,” manager Craig Albernaz said.

Alexander, Baltimore’s hottest hitter, fouled a ball of his leg in the second inning. And while Alexander played in the bottom half of that frame, he was removed ahead of the third. Cameras from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network showed Alexander struggling to put much weight on his right leg in the dugout, and the Orioles announced that he departed due to right knee discomfort.

Albernaz said Alexander’s knee locked up on him when he sat on the bench between innings. If there had been more time, trainers would have been able to work on the knee to allow Alexander to continue. But there wasn’t more time.

“I literally just yelled out to the dugout, ‘Who wants to play third?’” Albernaz said. “[Outfielder Colton] Cowser came down, and I was like, ‘Do you want to play third?’ And he went from being happy to pooping his pants a little bit, which, in my mind, I knew Leody. Because Leody, he does take ground balls regularly and stuff. Not on the infield, but in the outfield and stuff.

“We talked about it previously that he could play in the infield, so we were going with Leody, and he makes a great back-hand play his first play. Blaze is all right, though. It was fun, but also a little nerve-wracking, as well.”

Taveras wouldn’t have been the first choice. But infielder Jackson Holliday is dealing with a tight groin, and while he worked out on the field before the game, he was unavailable. Mayo, a third baseman, was in the designated hitter spot. If he entered on defense in the third, Baltimore would’ve forfeited the DH and Bradish would’ve had to hit for an extended period. The other two bench pieces were catchers Samuel Basallo and Chadwick Tromp.

Looking further afield, the Orioles could’ve moved Alonso to third. He played there in high school and at the start of his University of Florida career before he stuck at first. Outfielder Taylor Ward, who marked his return to Angel Stadium by homering to lead off the game, has played 46 games at third in his career. Most of those occurred in 2018, however, and he most recently played two innings there in 2022.

But Albernaz trusted Taveras, a good athlete and an even better sport, to handle the job.

“He’s a great teammate; you can ask anybody in there,” Bradish said. “And also a great athlete. If anybody was going to go out there and do it, it should have been him.”

With the way Bradish pitched, there wasn’t much for Taveras to do. He made the first play to him. Cairo waved and moved Taveras all over. And then in the bottom of the eighth, with a comfortable lead, the Orioles could afford to burn the DH spot. Mayo entered for the final two innings and Taveras moved to his normal spot in center field, as if this was all a fever dream.

“I was feeling weird because of where I’m at, but after that, it was pretty good,” Taveras said. “After the first ground ball, it was good.”

As the Taveras At Third Base Sideshow played, Bradish pitched one of the best performances of his career. He completed eight scoreless innings with six hits, one walk and nine strikeouts. Six of those punchouts were looking.

Over his last two starts, Bradish has pitched 15 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts and one run against him. That is the sort of ace-type quality pitching the Orioles hoped to see from Bradish, and it’s safe to say this is his best two-game performance since recovering from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery.

“When he’s efficient like that and attacking strikes on all of his pitches, it’s really tough for hitters to make a swing decision on that,” Albernaz said. “Not surprised with what K.B. did tonight, but also, it’s a testament to the work he’s put in and how elite stuff he has.”

The offensive performance behind him was also strong, continuing from the 12-spot they produced Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ward, the former Angel who arrived in Baltimore via trade this winter, homered off left-hander Sam Aldegheri. Mayo, a destroyer of left-handed pitching this year, lined his three-run shot to left field in the fourth.

Alonso lofted a sacrifice fly in the fifth, and in the seventh, Gunnar Henderson pulled an RBI triple to the right-field corner for the sixth run of the night. That was more than enough to sustain the solo shot from Jorge Soler to begin the ninth against right-hander Rico Garcia.

That was all business as usual. What Taveras did, though? That was above and beyond.

“He’s a ballplayer. He’s a gamer. He’s such a great teammate,” Albernaz said.