MINNEAPOLIS — Bobby Miller hoped for a bounceback begin on Wednesday in opposition to the struggling Minnesota Twins. As a substitute, he as soon as once more was bounced from the sport sooner than he’d like.
In his earlier begin on April 5 at Chicago, Miller bought simply 5 outs and gave up 5 earned runs in a loss to the Cubs. So his numbers on Wednesday had been a step in the precise path. Simply not as massive of a step as he’d hoped.
“I’m not tremendous joyful in regards to the outing, however with solely two runs, given the quantity of baserunners I had and the quantity of occasions I fell behind within the rely, that provides me confidence,” Miller stated. “I might have simply gave in and made it a four- or five-run recreation, however simply don’t give in and get out of these with solely two runs.”
Miller’s hopes for a bounceback bought off to a rocky begin, as Twins second baseman Edouard Julien led off the primary inning with an opposite-field dwelling run. Carlos Correa adopted with a pointy single, however Freddie Freeman began a 3-6-3 double play to assist Miller get out of the inning with only one run allowed.
However he wasn’t out of the woods. Miller walked the primary two batters he confronted within the second inning earlier than retiring the aspect on a popup, a strikeout and a weak comebacker.
The Twins generated extra visitors within the third when Julien and Correa led off the inning with singles. After Miller struck out Alex Kirilloff, Byron Buxton singled dwelling a run, breaking Minnesota’s 0-for-33 skid with runners in scoring place.
However once more, Miller wiggled out of it with out giving up one other run. His finest inning was his final, when he issued a one-out stroll to Christian Vázquez earlier than Miguel Rojas began one other double play on Kyle Farmer’s grounder.
“I simply attempt to be as environment friendly as doable with runners on base and let my protection do the work, as a result of we’ve bought an important protection,” Miller stated.
Miller’s largest downside on Wednesday was command, particularly of his offspeed pitches. He threw his fastball solely 40% of the time (29 of 73 pitches), and when he went to his secondary pitches, solely 50% of them (22 out of 44) went for strikes.
“Clearly he didn’t have his finest stuff. I believe it was a grind from the outset,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “The fastball wasn’t commanded, he didn’t have a really feel for his changeup once more, and the breaking ball, identical factor. So he was simply working a number of deep counts, working behind hitters — like I stated, it was only a grind.
“However to his credit score, he gave us what he had and stored us within the ballgame.”
The rating was tied 2-2 after 4 innings, however when Alex Vesia changed Miller, Julien took him deep too. That solo homer was the distinction as each bullpens mixed to close down the offenses the remainder of the way in which.
Michael Grove had an enormous hand in that for the Dodgers. He walked one and struck out 4 in 2 1/3 hitless innings, which lowered the load for a bullpen that spent three days in Minnesota recovering from a comparatively taxing sequence in opposition to the Cubs.
“It was an enormous outing for Michael,” Roberts stated. “He’s definitely gifted, and for him to eat up two and a 3rd innings for us was massive to maintain us on line so far as within the ‘pen and managing the workload. At the moment he simply had rhythm. His breaking ball was good, fastball good, so very environment friendly, and we would have liked each little bit of that one.”
