No team went more all-in than the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline this season, and one of their big-name additions got his first action with the Friars on Friday night. With the Padres trying to close out the first game of a three-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals, Mike Shildt turned to Mason Miller to get San Diego through the eighth inning.
Miller didn't throw a completely clean inning, giving up a pair of singles to start the inning and bringing the tying run to the plate with the Cardinals trailing 4-1. However, he quickly got Jordan Walker to strike out before Yohel Pozo ground into a double play to end the inning, getting Miller into the dugout unscathed.
Miller was showing off the heat during his brief outing, nearly topping out at 103 miles per hour according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
“Mason Miller allowed a couple hits, but he pitched a scoreless eighth inning,” Cassavell reported on X, formerly Twitter. “He also threw a 102.8 mph fastball, which equaled Andres Muñoz's franchise record for the fastest Padres pitch ever tracked. I suspect Miller will break that record sometime soon.”
Miller was then able to hand it off to Robert Suarez, who entered the game and shut the Cardinals down in the ninth inning to give the Padres the win. It's just one game, but San Diego is at least getting some proof of concept that its moves will help it down the stretch.
The Padres have created a short window of time for them to be competitive and make a run at a World Series after it traded some of its best prospects in the deal with the Athletics for Miller and starting pitcher JP Sears. As a result, it will need more clutch outings like this one from its new additions like Miller in order to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and make some noise in the NL playoffs.
