Ever since they returned from midseason treks to triple-A Oklahoma City, Bobby Miller and Walker Buehler have been in a similar boat.
The Dodgers continued to believe in their potential, even after porous and injury-plagued first halves of the season.
But to be counted on in October, they’d have to back it up with their late-season performances.
To this point, only one has answered the bell.
While Buehler has shown signs of life — and said he has felt more like his old self — with back-to-back encouraging starts, Miller continues to trend in the wrong direction, reaching perhaps a new low in his frustrating sophomore campaign in Wednesday night’s 10-1 loss to the Angels in Anaheim.
“I’m obviously not happy about it,” Miller said after a five-inning, seven-run start in which five runs scored in the bottom of the first. “But when that happens, you gotta forget about it and wash it. That happened and you just got to forget about it and move on.”
Miller’s first inning was an unmitigated disaster. He walked his first batter, then hit the next. He gave up two runs on back-to-back singles, then served up a first-pitch three-run homer to Mickey Moniak.
Just like that, it was 5-0 … before Miller had recorded his first out.
“It’s got to be better, and he knows that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You just can’t go out there and give up five runs and put us behind the 8-ball.”
Things only got marginally better for the 25-year-old right-hander from there. Despite striking out eight batters, he issued three total walks and gave up two more home runs: first to .079-batting designated hitter Niko Kavadas in the second inning, then another to Taylor Ward in the fifth.
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The five-inning, seven-run start left Miller with a 7.79 ERA in 11 outings this year; more than double his 3.76 mark in a promising 2023 debut.
“After the three-run homer, I seemed to really lock it back in,” said Miller, who has been bitten by 15 home runs in less than 50 innings this season. “I wish it wouldn’t take a home run to get locked back in each time.”
While Roberts said Miller would make his next start next Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, the clock is ticking for him to salvage what remains of a disappointing 2024 campaign — let alone build a case for a potential postseason role.
“I think where we’re at right now with certain players — Bobby, in this particular case — performance matters,” Roberts said.
“It’s not about the stuff, because as we’ve seen the stuff is there. I say it time and time again, it’s about performance. You’ve got to perform and give us a chance.”
In what has been a recurring problem for last year’s rookie star, Miller struggled to command his secondary pitches and was punished for fastballs he threw over the plate (his four-seamer averaged 98.3 mph, but induced zero whiffs).
“I don’t think they used his secondary pitches — the slider, the changeup, the curveball — the right way to protect the fastball,” Roberts said of Miller and catcher Austin Barnes. “Very predictable to an aggressive fastball-hitting team.”
Miller also continued to look out of sync with seemingly inconsistent mechanics, though he downplayed the effects of a knee issue that has bothered him since his return from a two-month midseason absence with shoulder inflammation.
“Today it actually felt really good, way better than it did last week,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, just a bad first inning today.”
The good news for the Dodgers is that pitching reinforcements are on the way.
Yamamoto’s start on Tuesday will be his first since suffering a strained rotator cuff on June 15. Though the right-handed Japnese rookie only pitched two innings in his last rehab start with triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the 53 pitches he threw in that outing (including 17 in one at-bat against former MLB All-Star Omar Narváez) were enough for the club to feel comfortable bringing him back.
“The way we’re looking at it is we’re going to get four starts from him [before the playoffs],” Roberts said of Yamamoto, who was 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA before getting hurt. “If we can log four starts and build up volume, we’ll be ready to go beyond that.”
Staff ace Tyler Glasnow is also making progress in his recovery from elbow tendinitis. He threw a flat-ground session before Wednesday’s game, and could begin throwing bullpen sessions again this weekend, according to Roberts.
If the Dodgers get both of those pitchers back in time for October (or Clayton Kershaw, who continues to play catch while nursing a bone spur on his left big toe), the team might not need Buehler or Miller in its potential postseason rotation, with Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone showing more consistency than either to this point of the season.
But, given the Dodgers’ injury luck on the mound this year, it remains highly possible that there could be openings to fill in the playoffs.
In the last week, Buehler has provided reasons for optimism.
Miller, on the other hand, is going back to the drawing board.
“We got put in a tough spot,” Roberts said. “Fortunately he got through five innings. But obviously the damage was done.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
