The Los Angeles Dodgers worked their way through a rough bullpen night because of some late-game heroics, taking down the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 6-5 walk-off win on Tuesday.
Aside from the power-filled offense in the ninth inning, Dodgers right-hander Bobby Miller made his sixth start of the regular season. Making just his third start since returning from a bout with right shoulder inflammation, his performance has been shaky.
Miller ran into trouble against the Diamondbacks in the fourth inning, allowing a two-run homer to Christian Walker, but escaped a bases loaded no out jam to end the frame. He came back out for the fifth inning, capping his day with five frames, allowing two earned runs on four hits.
“I definitely wish I could have given them more innings, but at the end of the day, it’s a step forward for me,” Miller said of his performance. “To get away with the stuff I had today, I feel pretty good about it, because that definitely was not my best stuff today. But I got away with it and got through five. Biggest part of the game was definitely bases loaded, no outs, so I was really glad I got out of that.
“Got really energetic after that, and Doc talked to me a little bit, just settle down a little bit, regroup, and that’s what I usually do after showing a lot of emotion out there. Just deep breaths, regroup and go back and get a shutdown inning. I knew the game was close and I knew our offense was going to do the job and get us back in the game.”
Miller walked three batters on Tuesday, a continued sign of his ongoing command issues. He noted that his fastball location is still something he’s battling.
“Yes and no. I mean, there still was a lot of misses,” Miller said. “There was a lot of good in there, as well. Threw a couple good changeups. But definitely not the command I wanted. The first three innings, the pitch count was pretty efficient, but definitely got in more three-two counts than I wanted to.
“They had some really good takes on the slider too, and then, unfortunately, the one they do swing at was a homer. It was kind of just a lazy pitch right there, but other than that, it was really good all the other innings.”
The Dodgers could greatly use an arm of his caliber, and Tuesday was a good place to be when evaluating that path, even if Miller was critical of his stuff as a whole.
“Yeah, I think maybe with the velocity being a little bit down, I tended to try to pinpoint a little too much instead of just letting everything rip, how I should normally be,” Miller added. “But yeah, it’s a step forward and just trying to stay confident in myself after coming off this injury. Starting to get back into the swing of things, so yeah, just trying to keep the confidence up and not doubting myself.”
How important is Bobby Miller to the Dodgers’ rotation
Without the Dodgers knowing the future of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw’s path back unclear, and Walker Buehler away from the team to find himself, Miller is a necessary piece.
Miller lacked the luxury of a proper start to his season, which gives a build-up to get a true feel for his stuff. To his own admission, he’s approaching this current run as a second Spring Training.
Miller’s first taste of postseason baseball went horribly, but he’s stood on the mound and this time around, it could be with a reduced role. Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, and a possible deadline addition would ease the reliance on him being perfect.
The caveat, of course, is if Miller finds his command on his entire arsenal, the Dodgers have a front-end guy.
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