Archie Bradley was waiting for something, anything that would allow his command to fall into place. Coming off a month in which he walked 19 batters in 19 1/3 innings for Class A South Bend, the 6-foot-4 right-hander hoped for a new start at the beginning of the month.

It took a few innings, but he got just what he needed.

"All you need is sometimes one inning for everything really to click," he said. "In that [July 1] game against Lansing, I struck out six and still walked five, but I struck out the side in the second, and everything just seemed to fall into place. That seems to have carried over ever since."

The D-backs' No. 2 prospect surrendered only one run on four hits and one walk over six innings to lead Class A South Bend to a 9-1 victory at Kane County.

The start marked the first time since May 19 that the 19-year-old right-hander had issued fewer than two free passes and the second occasion in which he hurled six frames, marking his career high in the Minor Leagues first set on April 11.

The correlation between those two facts is not an accident.

"It just shows that everything I've been working on here is finally working," Bradley said. "I'm not a guy who walks a lot of people, even though that's not what my stats showed earlier this year. But I'm feeling back on track, and I was able to pitch six innings because of it."

The Oklahoma native made it through 4 2/3 innings before giving up a walk and retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced. His most difficult frame came in the third when he allowed three consecutive singles, bookended by Justin Trapp's RBI single.

Although Bradley's other stats were solid in June -- 2.79 ERA, .156 opposing batting average -- the high walk total dampened what otherwise would have been a rather exceptional month. In May, however, the numbers weren't nearly as pretty. Bradley earned a 6.04 ERA, no thanks to 17 walks in 28 1/3 frames.

The hurler, who sports a fastball, a changeup and a curveball that he turns to in all situations, chalked that up to simply overthinking his task at hand.

"Sometimes, I was trying to be too fine with all of my pitches," Bradley said. "Now I'm trying to just throw the ball over the plate. If they hit it, they hit it. I'd rather go after them and give up a base hit than allow a bunch of walks."

Despite the free passes, the fact remains that the right-hander has shown flashes of just why he shunned a two-sport scholarship with the University of Oklahoma and chose pro ball after being selected seventh overall in last year's Draft. His .163 opposing batting average on the year ranks third among all Minor Leaguers while his 85 strikeouts are third in the Midwest League.

Still, Bradley added he's almost pleased that he ran into problems so early in his professional career.

"I'd rather be a guy who struggles now, because I have a chance to iron things out and get them settled so I don't have to run into the same issues again later," he said. "Hopefully, I can keep rolling through the upper levels smoothly because of this. I've had a good first year overall because of that."

Roidany Aguila led the way offensively for the Silver Hawks, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and four RBIs. Tom Belza contributed a double, an RBI and a run scored as part of a 3-for-4 showing at the plate.