Family affair: Kansas City Royals pitcher Kyle Zimmer struck out his brother Bradley
Kyle Zimmer certainly didn’t have an ideal outing Saturday night, but the Kansas City Royals right-handed relief pitcher can at least say he reclaimed bragging rights among family members.
Zimmer, 29, recorded one out in the seventh inning of the Royals’ 14-6 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. That lone out came via a strikeout and at the expense of his 28-year-old brother, Bradley.
Kyle Zimmer entered the game with one out, a runner on and the Royals trailing 9-6. He gave up two singles and an Oscar Mercado home run before his left-handed-hitting brother stepped into the batter’s box.
“The matchup itself is awesome,” Kyle Zimmer said. “It’s something we dreamed about our entire life.”
The five-pitch at-bat started with Kyle throwing a 95 mph fastball for a called strike on the outer half. He followed that up with a slider called for a strike on the inner half. After a curveball missed well outside, Bradley fouled off another slider on the inner half.
Kyle finished off the strikeout by throwing a 95 mph fastball low and inside that Bradley chased and swung and missed at for the third strike.
Royals manager Mike Matheny then removed Kyle in favor of relief pitcher Anthony Swarzak.
“I’m a little frustrated,” Kyle said. “I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but hopefully it’s the first of many.”
The brothers are each former first-round draft picks of their respective organizations.
The Royals drafted Kyle with the fifth overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft out of the University of San Francisco. The Indians chose Bradley 21st overall out of San Francisco in the 2014 draft.
They both have been highly rated prospects who endured injury-plagued years during their professional career. They both made opening day rosters at the start of last year’s 60-game season when the Royals opened in Cleveland. They’d actually trained together during the pandemic shutdown.
They did not face each other in that season-opening series last season. Due to health and safety restrictions, friends and family could not attend games even though several members of their family were in town.
This weekend, their family was able to watch from the ballpark. Kyle said their parents, his fianceé and her parents as well as Bradley’s girlfriend were all at the game.
“It was cool to have that happen in front of them, especially after last year not being able to have any fans here,” Kyle said. “It’s cool to have them here in person to be able to see that for the first time.”
The brothers had never faced each other in an official game prior to this season. They’d been teammates growing up as well as while playing in high school and college.
In May, Zimmer did a rehab stint with Triple-A Omaha as he bounced back from a left trapezius strain. At the same time, Bradley played for the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers.
That’s when they had their first head-to-head matchup in Columbus, Ohio. Bradley hit a single to left field. A runner was thrown out at third base on the play to end the inning. Zimmer ended up with the win in the game, and he later quipped about his brother, “I gave him a cookie. He had been struggling a little bit, so I wanted to get his confidence up.”
Zimmer also said he was just setting up his brother for a strikeout in a subsequent meeting when he’d “catch him slipping.”
On Saturday night, Zimmer proved prescient.
“That was the plan,” Kyle said with a chuckle. “Executed it the way we wanted to. Going down 1-0 in the books against him, that’s what really matters.”
This story was originally published July 11, 2021 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Family affair: Kansas City Royals pitcher Kyle Zimmer struck out his brother Bradley."
