Bobby Miller has had an impressive start to his MLB career, making five starts since the Los Angeles Dodgers promoted him from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Over his first four starts, Miller allowed only two earned runs over 23 innings pitched. He also had a scoreless streak of 20 consecutive innings during his first five outings.
However, that was snapped by the San Francisco Giants and Miller was brought back down to Earth a bit as he allowed seven earned runs over 5.2 innings.
Miller ended up taking the first loss of his career, but he isn’t letting that poor outing affect him moving forward.
“I’ve lost plenty of times in my life,” Miller said. “You win some, you lose some. Just got to stay positive and keep pitching. Keep doing what I’m doing.”
Miller ended up allowing four runs in the first inning and another before he was removed in the sixth inning. Two more runs were then charged to him when Alex Vesia surrendered a grand slam.
Although the overall line didn’t present much to be happy about, Miller said he would be able to learn from the start to help him improve moving forward.
“Of course. Just a couple bad pitches,” Miller said. “Honestly, I feel like there was a lot of good in there as well. Not looking at the line, there’s a lot to learn as well. But I feel like I made some really good pitches besides a couple at-bats.”
Even with that outing, Miller is still 3-1 with a 2.83 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 28 strikeouts over 28.2 innings. He entered the start against the Giants with a 0.78 ERA.
Miller also became the second Dodgers pitcher since at least 1901 to complete a minimum of five innings and allow one run or fewer in each of his first four starts, joining Kenta Maeda who accomplished it in 2016.
Miller also is the ninth pitcher since 1901 to allow a combined two runs or fewer through his first four starts, with the only other Dodgers to achieve that being Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Maeda (2016).
Dave Roberts sees similarities between Bobby Miller and Walker Buehler
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been impressed with Miller and sees similarities between him and when Walker Buehler began to find his footing in 2018.
The comparisons between Miller and Buehler are natural as both pitchers are right-handed and throw a fastball that can reach triple digits.
Buehler enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2018 that saw him go 8-5 with a 2.62 ERA, 3.04 FIP, 0.96 WHIP and 9.9 strikeouts per nine over 137.1 innings pitched in 24 games (23 starts).
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