The San Diego Padres had plenty of great single-game performances this year, which isn’t exactly surprising given that the Padres won 90 games and made the playoffs. But the performance chosen by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com was an incredibly rare achievement that’s only been done by one other Padres player.
Reliever Mason Miller’s “immaculate inning” against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 3 was the choice, and Miller went above and beyond even the stringent standards for this sort of thing. He struck out all three hitters he faced on nine straight sliders, and Orioles hitters swung and missed the last eight, with no foul balls or tips.
The only other Padres player to accomplish this feat was pitcher Brian Lawrence, who also did it against Baltimore back in 2002.
As for Miller, he’s been a topic of considerable conversation and speculation. The Padres were supposedly considering moving him into the rotation this season, but Miller is still a two-pitch reliever at this point in his career, so that kind of shift wouldn’t play well in his second and third time through opposing lineups.
It’s also no accident that Miller leaned hard on his slider when he posted that immaculate inning. He worked on it a lot late in the season, to the point where it became a dominant pitch, and given his velocity, it makes him almost unhittable in a one- or two-inning role.
“Guys started figuring out my plan of attack and things kind of shifted as they do,” Miller said in explaining his process with the slider. “And I had to adjust back to the adjustments hitters were making. My slider’s a great pitch as well, so I’m just figuring out how I can couple those.”
The big question for Miller going forward is whether he’ll step into the closer role now that reliever Robert Suarez has signed with the Atlanta Braves. The Padres have several candidates to do this, but making this kind of move would weaken their bullpen, which was the team’s major strength this year.
Miller is also one of the few pitchers in baseball who could actually have another immaculate inning. He threw the hardest pitch in baseball this year at just over 104 mph, and given what he did against the Orioles with that slider, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see him do it again at some point given his impressive power arsenal.