Nine pitches. Nine strikes. Three strikeouts. On the night of August 25, 2026, Taj Bradley did something no pitcher had ever done in 65 years of Minnesota Twins baseball — he threw an immaculate inning, retiring the side in the fifth on nine straight strikes. Not a foul ball, not a ball out of the zone, not a single swing that made contact. Just nine pitches, all strikes, all gone.
How It Happened, Pitch by Pitch
The fifth inning opened without much fanfare. Bradley was in control, even with the Athletics already ahead on the scoreboard. He worked through the frame with ruthless efficiency:
- Carlos Cortes — splitter at 92.3 mph, 0-2 count, strikeout.
- Brian Serven — curveball, same count, same result.
- Henry Bolte, Sacramento’s leadoff hitter, went down on a four-seam fastball at 99.8 mph on the bottom edge of the zone.
That last pitch — 99.8 mph to close it out — is the kind of exclamation point that makes a historic moment feel complete. According to MLB.com, no Twins pitcher had ever done this. Not Bert Blyleven. Not Johan Santana. Not Jack Morris. Bradley did it in his first full season with the club.
A Night of Two Stories
The Twins still lost, 4-2. Bradley finished with 11 strikeouts in 6⅔ innings — his season high — but allowed four runs. Then, in the seventh, All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton left the game with an injury. The final score buried the headline, but the history didn’t go anywhere. That’s the thing about immaculate innings: they happen inside ordinary games, sometimes in losses, sometimes without moving the standings at all. What moves is the record book, and that’s permanent.
Bradley arrived in Minnesota on July 31, 2025, in a one-for-one trade that sent reliever Griffin Jax to Tampa Bay. Less than a year later, he’s the Twins’ leader in WAR among starters in 2026 — and now has his own chapter in franchise history.
One more layer: Bradley has Mexican heritage through his grandmother. Born on March 20, 2001, in Los Angeles, he was eligible to pitch for Team Mexico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, confirmed his interest, made the roster — and then chose to stay with the Twins for spring training. A career call, not a statement about identity.
The Numbers Behind the Inning
Bradley’s fastball is the kind you feel differently, and Statcast backs it up. His 2026 numbers across 26 starts and 147.1 innings:
- ERA: 3.97 · WHIP: 1.28
- 169 strikeouts against 63 walks — a 27% strikeout rate
- xERA: 3.86 (based on quality of contact allowed)
- Average fastball: 94.6 mph with 2,271 rpm of spin
- Whiff rate: 26.6% of swings against him miss entirely
- Batting average against: .224
- Average exit velocity allowed: 90.8 mph
- Barrel rate allowed: 9.4%
Where he ranks across MLB:
- Strikeout rate (K%): 80th percentile
- Fastball velocity: 88th percentile
- Soft contact allowed: 5th percentile — one of the lowest in baseball
- Hard-hit rate allowed: 6th percentile — same story
Those last two numbers tell you the most. Bradley doesn’t just miss bats — when hitters do make contact, it tends to be weak. The immaculate inning was a perfect distillation of everything he’s been doing all season.
