Jackie Bradley Jr. had two hits, one a game-tying single up the middle, the other a triple off the right field wall — a few feet shy of a home run — after entering in the seventh inning of a 12-9 Red Sox loss.
SARASOTA, Fla. — He's hitting .444. He's the talk of Boston.
Someone should tell Red Sox outfield prospect Jackie Bradley Jr. that even if he's in Pawtucket, he'll have no problem finding a place to live.
"You always want to know where you're going to go, just so you can make arrangements, if you've got to get an apartment or something," Bradley Jr. said Monday. "Everything is at the last minute. Not only are y'all waiting, but I am, too."
Coming up to the plate cold didn't bother Jackie Bradley Jr. any on Monday, when he had two hits in the final three innings of a 12-9 Red Sox loss to the Orioles. The first knock was a game-tying, pinch-hit single up the middle in the seventh inning that plated two runs. The other was a triple off the right field wall that fell a few feet shy of a home run.
The seventh-inning hit was off Pedro Strop, one of the O's better relievers, and it knotted the game at 9. Boston trailed by five two innings earlier.
The reaction that same scenario would have brought at Fenway Park would not have been mild.
"You never know when you're going to be called upon, so you might as well be ready," Bradley said. "They told me I was going in. I had to get my mindset right. The rest was history."
The triple came with two out in the ninth off a prospect named Chris Petrini, a lefty.
"Against a good pitcher in Strop, and then even against a left-hander who has decent stuff, he takes a strike," Sox manager John Farrell said. "He’s not afraid to hit deep in the count with two strikes and gets a breaking ball middle of the plate. Yeah, very consistent approach. And what was even more impressive I think, is after a day yesterday when some left-handers tied him up a little bit, he came back today against a left-hander with some quality stuff and put a good swing on the ball."
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