Miller Transitions From ‘Historical’ To ‘Merely Great’ In His Latest Padre Save

The San Diego Padres have seen nearly everything from closer Mason Miller this season when it comes to sustained excellence, but last night Miller provided a new kind of heroics as he went from struggling to superman in the Padres 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The Padres got their dream scenario in this one, and it set up Miller perfectly. Starter Michael King pitched seven innings of shutout ball, and setup man Jason Adam pitched a scoreless eighth. The Padres thought they were done with the hard part in this one, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. 

Instead, Miller lost the plate. Completely at times, so much so that nine of the first ten pitches he threw were balls, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. He found a way to turn it around, though, getting three outs in a row after walking the first two hitters. 

“I just got away from who I am for a minute,” Miller said. “And I kind of found it, real quick.”

Miller said the issue was mechanical, as he wasn’t finishing on his front leg. Pitching coach Ruben Niebla yelled some instructions from the dugout at one point, but Miller already had most of his brief issues figured out as he posted his 15th save of the young season. 

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball right now,” Niebla said. “And his confidence level is at that right now. I was pretty calm the whole time, because I was like: It was going to happen. Mason makes it happen. And he made it happen.”

Another turning point was a challenge from backup catcher Rodolfo Duran that flipped the count back to even at 1-1 against Will Smith. 

Manager Craig Stammen has been in situations like that before, and he knows what it takes to do what Miller did. It’s hard to get to reestablish control in the middle of a bad outing, and he lauded the premiere reliever for that. 

“He just went from throwing a lot of balls to just throwing all strikes,” said manager Craig Stammen. “That’s a pretty big flip of the switch. It just talks about how mentally tough he is.”

The win helped the Padres take a half-game lead over the Dodgers, and it gave them a leg up in their three-game set. Niebla said Miller was going from historical to merely great, and the Padres are getting used to this sort of thing. 

“It’s very comforting to have him come in at the end of games -- we feel really good about how the game’s going to end,” Stammen said. “Will he be perfect the entire season? I don’t know. Humans aren’t perfect. But sure, right now, he’s pretty good. And we feel pretty good about him.”