They would practice patience and deploy him with care. Maybe he would pitch so well that he would start games in the postseason. Maybe he’d become a weapon out of the playoff bullpen. Maybe the Dodgers wouldn’t need him at all.
The plan certainly wasn’t what has unfolded in recent weeks. Three months into the season, Miller isn’t a shiny rotation depth piece for the Dodgers. He’s an essential, high-octane arm they’re relying on every fifth day earlier than anyone expected to stay afloat in the National League playoff race.
And on Wednesday, after two days of dismal news for their starting rotation, the Dodgers gave him the ball against the Pittsburgh Pirates in need of a deep outing to help an exhausted, struggling bullpen. Miller responded with a gutsy effort, pitching around two costly mistakes to give the Dodgers 52/3 innings in a 6-4 win at Dodger Stadium.
The victory didn’t come without two late-inning bullpen scares. Twice the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs in the last three innings. And twice the Dodgers evaded a letdown, dancing around the fire to keep the Pirates scoreless.
Ryan Brasier, making his seventh relief appearance for the Dodgers, extinguished the first threat, securing the final two outs of the seventh inning.
Two innings later, over a year after he last pitched in a save situation, Daniel Hudson took the mound for the ninth inning to protect the two-run lead because Evan Phillips had pitched the previous three days.
The veteran right-hander, pitching in his third game this season, promptly surrendered a leadoff double to Connor Joe and then walked Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds. The crowd braced for the team’s second bullpen collapse in two nights. Instead, Hudson retired the next three hitters to avoid disaster, striking out Jack Suwinski on a 3-and-2 slider for his first save since last June.
“It was fun,” Hudson said. “Kind of like how I remembered it. It’s a pretty special feeling walking through those gates.”
In the end, the Pirates scored their four runs on two home runs off Miller. Reynolds, the second batter Miller faced, mashed the first to give Pittsburgh a quick lead.
Three innings later, he hung a slider to Suwnski, who blasted a three-run shot to put the Pirates (40-46) ahead 4-0. The ball landed a few rows into the right-field pavilion and was thrown back onto the outfield grass before Suwinski rounded the bases. The high-pitched shrieks pregame for Peso Pluma, who threw out the first pitch, were replaced by deep-throated boos.
The mood quickly shifted when the Dodgers (48-38) answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. They added four in the fifth on back-to-to-back home runs from J.D. Martinez and David Peralta. Martinez’s three-run shot was his 20th of the season. Peralta’s solo blast was his sixth.
Moments later, the delicate state of the Dodgers’ pitching staff was put on display. Miller, a prized young talent the club cannot afford to overuse, was approaching 90 pitches. A call to the bullpen would have made sense. But Roberts kept Miller in the game to start the inning.
Miller needed eight pitches to strike out Henry Davis. He used two to retire Carlos Santana, moving to within an out from giving the Dodgers six innings. Then he walked Suwinski, coaxing Roberts from the dugout to pull him after 101 pitches.
It was the second time Miller has thrown 100 pitches as a major leaguer since debuting in late May. He recorded seven strikeouts to one walk. It was the kind of performance the Dodgers didn’t expect to need in July.
“We’re kind of in it right now,” Roberts said. “I wouldn’t say we’re limping to the break with the ’pen, but we’ve got three games left and the expectation is to win three.”
In previous years, an established starter would have been given the ball to stop the bleeding. But the Dodgers are in short supply of those. How did they get here? Where to start? How about last June? That was when Walker Buehler landed on the injured list because of an elbow injury. He underwent his second Tommy John surgery in August. The Dodgers are hopeful he can return in some capacity before the end of this season, but it’s not a guarantee.
The Dodgers then lost Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney in free agency. In response, they signed a wounded Noah Syndergaard to a one-year contract. He posted a 7.16 ERA in 12 outings before going on the injured list because of a blister and shot confidence.
Julio Urías, a free agent this winter, recently sat out more than a month because of a hamstring injury and has a 4.94 ERA in 11 starts. Tony Gonsolin sat out the season’s first three weeks and hasn’t rediscovered his All-Star mojo from last summer.
Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ best pitcher this season at 35, was put on the injured list Monday because of shoulder inflammation a day after being named to the NL All-Star team.
And on Tuesday came the latest blow:
The Dodgers announced Dustin May, out since the middle of May, is scheduled to undergo season-ending elbow surgery later this month.
“I think it changes the calculus,” Roberts said. “Having a guy like Dustin, who we consider a top-end starter, a guy that can start a playoff game. So to be able to not count on that, certainly cuts into the depth.”
May’s misfortune leaves Urías and Gonsolin in the rotation with three rookies — Michael Grove, Emmet Sheehan, and Miller — until after the All-Star break with a bullpen that has scuffled. The Dodgers will undoubtedly attempt to bolster the rotation with an acquisition before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. That doesn’t mean they will.
For now, they must win with what they have. On Wednesday, they had Miller, a first-round pick in 2020 with electric stuff and seven career major league starts. His eighth was just good enough.