Teren's Take: This Pitch Could Be Key For Seattle Mariners Starting Pitcher
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SEATTLE — Health has been hard to come by for the Seattle Mariners' starting rotation this season.
Three starting pitchers, four if you include rookie fill-in Logan Evans, have had respective injured list stints. And one of those hurlers is trying to work his way back into form.
Bryce Miller made just his second start since being activated off the 15-day injured list against the San Diego Padres on Monday. He's been on the injured list twice this season for elbow issues.
Miller's outing against the Padres wasn't a dominant one, by any means, but he battled through it. He struck out four batters, walked one and allowed four earned runs on six hits (three home runs) in five innings pitched. All three homers, and all four runs, came in the second inning.
The adjustment Miller made after the second inning could be a positive sign for the rest of his season.
After the second inning, Miller started throwing his splitter regularly with positive results. His final two strikeouts in the third inning both came with that offering, and he faced the minimum number of hitters in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
"There was a stretch where I was like 'I'm just gonna throw every pitch a splitter and see what happens,'" Miller said after the game. "I think that's something where — last year, splitter was still new for me. It was like, 'Throw it and finish counts and hope they swing.' And we would never go to it early. I think if I can show it early in at-bats, it'll play even better at the end of at-bats."
Miller's splitter is the one of the most effective pitches in his arsenal. Among his secondary pitches, Miller has allowed the second-lowest opposing batting average with his splitter (.268) and has the second-most strikeouts with it (10), per Baseball Savant. He's thrown it 141 times this season, which is more than any other offering aside from his four- and two-seam fastballs. The next-highest-used secondary pitch after that is his knuckle curve (117 times thrown).
Miller won't be able to go to the splitter that often consistently, but it is a positive development for the third-year hurler that he was able to make a successful adjustment after an entire season of setbacks where it felt like nothing was working.
"Every team you play, you're not always going to have every pitch," Miller said. "Not everything's always gonna feel great and some lineups are gonna be completely different than other lineups. You have to be able to adjust on the fly and I was happy and satisfied with how I was able to fully switch and go all splitters, almost, the last three innings. Be confident in it."
Miller has 5.98 ERA this season with 47 strikeouts in 58.2 innings pitched across 12 starts.
The Mariners are 71-61 on the season and if Miller can continue to pitch well, it will go a long way toward them clinching a playoff spot for the first time since 2022.
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