How do you respond to a guy who's proven that he can crush your 103.9-mph fastball deep into left field for a four-bagger? Well, you don't throw him your 103.9-mph fastball; you dissolve him with your slider. That's how Mason Miller was able to begin his ninth-inning save on Wednesday night.
The Padres' big deadline add from not-Oakland was in the news for the wrong reason after Tuesday's game, when Diamondbacks DH Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tied the score in the eighth by making Miller's flameball the fastest pitch ever homered on (probably ever, but at least since they started keeping track of those things in 2008). San Diego recovered to win in extra innings, but it was hard to forget the fact that Miller's searing heat had been made to look so vincible.
Padres manager Mike Shildt, however, did not shy away from putting Miller in another tricky situation as soon as he could. After his hitters rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth, the 26-year-old righty took the mound with a 3-2 lead to protect. The first man he'd have to face? None other than the fire eater himself, Lourdes Gurriel.
This appearance felt like an inflection point for Miller's season. He'd just changed addresses, and with the Padres jockeying for wild card positioning, he was really getting his first-ever taste of meaningful major-league baseball. His initial outing was shaky but ultimately fine; his second made San Diego fans say "Oh no." If Miller showed vulnerability again, it would be a fight in these last weeks of the season to re-establish himself as the intimidating stopper the Padres acquired him to be.
What I can infer about Gurriel's approach at the plate, leading off the ninth, made sense. I know I can take him deep on the fastball, so I'll look fastball. And there's a certain strain of competitive spirit that would whisper in Miller's ear, "Just go right after him again, and prove you're the boss." But the reliever resisted the urge. He started with a slider right down the middle that he trusted his enemy wouldn't anticipate. Then he threw another slider in the zone that Gurriel couldn't react to. And in control on 0-2, Miller went to the slider again, this time in an unhittable spot down by the ankles where a defensive Gurriel could only swing and miss. Even though three pitches in a row at a mere 90 mph is not what the fans get excited to see from Mason Miller, this was an invigorating strikeout for the freshly minted Padre.
Miller's a fun pitcher to write about because of the ultimate simplicity of his approach. He's got the fastball that he throws in the triple digits, and he's got that slider that qualifies as "off-speed." If you're expecting fastball and see the slider, you swing early and you swing high. If you're braced for the slider, you're too late to intercept the speeding train headed for the catcher's glove. In theory, you can guess right and win the jackpot, like Gurriel did once he saw enough pitches on Tuesday. But it's nowhere near as easy as it sounds.
Let's play a game: What do you think Miller and catcher Freddy Fermin picked for their opening trio of pitches against Tyler Locklear?
If you guessed "Another slider, then fastball, then slider," congratulations! You still probably wouldn't be able to hit Mason Miller. Locklear sure couldn't. He looked flat-footed on the first offering, winded as he swung at the second, and absolutely loopy as he tried to make contact with the third pitch way outside.
The next batter, Blaze Alexander (his real name!), was able to work a walk against Miller, so this outing was not without flaw. But if you take out that PA, Miller earned himself an immaculate inning, because he only needed three more tosses to eliminate pinch hitter Adrian Del Castillo. It was another pretty slider dropped in for a strike, because (understandably) everyone has fastball on their mind. Then it was another sneaky slider put in the same spot. And for the grand finale, Miller went high at 103 for the swing and the miss.
It will take a long time to officially "judge" the trade that helped seal this particular Padres win, because the top prospect sent to not-Oakland was Leo De Vries, who was born in 2006. The only thing that matters to San Diego, however, is winning the World Series for the first time in their history. Tuesday might have shaken their fans' faith in Miller, just a little bit. But on Wednesday, he looked like the kind of arm any team would want for a deep run.
