Bobby Miller’s latest outing for the Los Angeles Dodgers turned out to be another disaster.
Miller allowed seven runs in five innings of work against the Los Angeles Angels, including five in the first inning before he recorded a single out. While he settled into the game and ended up going four more innings with just two runs allowed after that first, the damage was already done.
“It’s kind of hard to put into words, but recently I’ve been feeling really good and I still felt really good today,” Miller said. “Besides the first inning, there was a lot of good in there. Just a couple good fastball hitters, couple bad pitch selection.
“I could go back and look and be like, ‘Yeah, I threw those balls on the corner.’ But they’re some good fastball hitters and I threw the wrong pitch at the wrong time. They put some good swings on some not really bad pitches.”
Miller started the night with a walk, hit-by-pitch, and single that loaded the bases for Anthony Rendon, who singled home two runs. Mickey Moniak then slugged a three-run homer to give the Angels a five-run lead before he recorded an out.
After that, Miller struck out the next three hitters and retired 12 of the next 13 batters he faced, including nine straight.
“After the three-run homer I really locked back in,” Miller said. “Wish it wouldn’t take a home run to lock back in each time. They couldn’t adjust to the changeup, but I started using it a little bit too late.
“If I used it a little earlier, I think things would’ve gone a lot differently and I would’ve gone really, really deep into the game. Right now I’ve just got to focus on the good. At the end of the day, after that three-run homer, there was a lot of good besides a couple really good swing.”
Miller, who completed his 11th start for the Dodgers, have not had much success after his first outing of the year. Since then, he’s dealt with a shoulder injury, knee injury and 10 consecutive starts of underwhelming performance.
His ERA now stands at 7.79 in 49.2 innings with a 1.65 WHIP. Despite the struggles, Miller is going to continue making starts for the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts said.
“I don’t think that right now we have another alternative,” Roberts said. “I think he’s going to start the last day against the Cubs, so he’ll get a couple days extra (rest). But yeah, he’s going to make his next start.”
Landon Knack and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are both set to join the rotation within the next week. Knack is starting on Friday in place of Clayton Kershaw, while Yamamoto will take the spot that Justin Wrobleski held before he was optioned.
Ben Casparius is not an option to be recalled to the Dodgers until Sept. 16 due to MLB roster moves, and they have no other healthy starters on the 40-man roster who are not already in the rotation or on their way to joining the rotation.
The Dodegrs rotation will shape up to be, in no particular order, Jack Flaherty, Gavin Stone, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Landon Knack and Miller.
After Sept. 5, the Dodgers only have two more off days with 22 games remaining, including a stretch of 10 straight, so they won’t be able to keep their starters on the five-day rest they’ve done throughout the year without a six-man rotation.
If there’s any silver lining from Miller’s outing, the Dodgers and the right-hander believe it to be mostly focused on his sequencing. While the command was not good either, utilizing pitches at the correct time can give him a major advantage.
“I think to start the game, I thought he got behind,” Roberts said. “I don’t think they sequenced well, I don’t think they used his secondary pitches — the slider, the curveball, the changeup — the right way, to protect the fastball. Very predictable to an aggressive, fastball hitting team.
“As he got into the game, he started sequencing better, which led to more efficient outs. We got put in a tough spot and fortunately he got through five innings, but obviously the damage was done.”
Roberts went on to add: “You have to, as a starting pitcher, be able to get ahead with different secondary pitches. You have to, unless you have 80 command.
“Right now he doesn’t. So it’s a fastball that hitters see, so it’s either got to be commanded really well and moved to different locations, or you have to be able to get ahead with different breaking balls.
“That’s just the way it goes. And if you can’t do that, then the catcher is in a tough spot. We’ve got to get better.”
Bobby Miller felt healthy on mound
While Miller’s health has potentially been an important part of the reason for his struggles this year, the 25-year-old said his knee is feeling better after at affected him his previous outing.
“Today, I actually felt really good,” Miller said. “Way better than I did last week. Just unfortunately had a bad first inning.”
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