He's been one of the quietest but most impactful players for the Orioles this season. Now, he'll enter the spotlight as his team faces at least two weeks without veteran reliever Darren O'Day.
Brad Brach, the 30-year-old reliever who grew into a vital piece in the second half of 2015, is continuing his success this season in a do-it-all role that will now include some of O'Day's responsibilities.
"He's very quietly one of the better bullpen weapons in our league," manager Buck Showalter said. "I don't know where we'd be without him. It's tough keeping him underneath that appearance threshold that I try to keep everybody under. Every day. … He's one of those guys you want to use every night. He actually could throw every night. But I don't want to mess something up."
Brach has been everything Showalter needs him to be — a multi-inning reliever, a menace to left-handed batters and a bridge to closer Zach Britton.
With O'Day on the disabled list due to a right hamstring strain, the Orioles are down an All-Star in their bullpen. But into his role slides someone who's pitching like one.
Brach has allowed just three earned runs in 29 2/3 innings (24 appearances) for a 0.91 ERA, with 31 strikeouts and a 0.91 WHIP.
He's improved in each of his five major league seasons, but manager Showalter believes this year's success has coincided with him growing more comfortable off the field.
"You can see in his personality he's a lot more engaging," Showalter said. "Brad's always extremely respectful, almost to a fault, and once you get to know him and talk to him, there's a whole lot of substance there. A whole lot of competitive fire. I think he's figured out how to kind of keep that in the fold, and funnel it towards the opposition."
Brach says he minded his own business in his first few seasons after coming to the Orioles in an offseason trade from the San Diego Padres. He's benefited from a team that believes in him and consistent teammates. O'Day said Brach doesn't mess with anyone because he doesn't want them to mess with him.
"He kind of stays in his lane," O'Day said.
The fire Showalter mentioned has only appeared off the field to O'Day once — on the golf course. Brach's competitive instincts allow him to pitch in high-leverage situations.
"The more guys a manager can trust with a lead late in a game is only going to help the team," O'Day said. "Brad, speaking specifically about him, he's kind of realizing how good he is now, and that he belongs pitching late in games, and that he's really good at it. So he's enjoying playing. … I think Brad's going to be a really good reliever for a long time."
Just how late in games Brach will pitch is about to change. With O'Day and Mychal Givens best suited to retire right-handers, Showalter tries to get Brach into games when there are left-handers coming up, regardless of the inning.
But Brach could see more eighth-inning appearances with the lead in O'Day's absence. Brach, an admitted over-thinker, has learned not to have expectations of when his name will be the one relayed through the bullpen phone.
"You just get going," he said. "We've pitched so many times in our lives that it just becomes second nature. You just pick up a ball, throw your warm-up pitches and next thing you know Buck is pointing to the bullpen. You don't really have time to think about it."
Brach might be producing the best run of his life.
In the summer after his sophomore year at Monmouth, he said he went on a run of four or five starts where he allowed one earned run in 36 innings "or something crazy like that." He also carried an ERA around 1.00 until the All-Star break in Class-A in the Padres organization, he said.
"But no, I can't think of a stretch where I really pitched this well, this consistently," Brach said. "It's good, because it's one of those things where I know I'm pitching well, but it's not like I'm doing anything too crazy outside of what I can do."
Brach knows what he's done so far, while impressive, is only just a beginning.
"That's the crazy thing I've been thinking about: I've done this for two months," Brach said. "We still have four months of the season to go, and we still have a month before the All-Star break. You have to continue to do this through the All-Star game, and to have a year like this, you have to do it for four more months. It's just kind of crazy when you talk about 162 games like that. It's a long, long season."
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