By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2016/10/15/now-its-miller-time/If the Blue Jays have any prayer of coming back to win an American League Championship Series in which they opened two games in
the hole, they have but one recourse. They’re going to have to arrange Andrew Miller’s kidnapping.
“Baseball is so rooted in traditions,” tweeted Dodger pitcher Brandon McCarthy, after the Indians beat the Jays a second straight time
Saturday afternoon, “that hitters still take their bats to the plate against Andrew Miller even though they’re not needed.”
Well, somebody has to do it. Even if it’s becoming deadly obvious that the Indians’ strategy for neutralising the Jays seems to be getting
the game to Miller in the middle.
Miller has become so powerful a shutdown weapon that the Indians in Game Two needed nothing more than Carlos Santana opening
the bottom of the second by taking 20 game-winning J.A. Happ over the left center field fence and Francisco Lindor, with two outs in
the bottom of the third, singling home Rajai Davis—aboard after forcing out Roberto Perez, atoning by stealing second and then taking
third on a Happ wild pitch.
Miller even made the Indians feel relaxed despite Josh Donaldson driving home the only Jays run with a double to right in the top of
the third.
“He goes out there for two innings,” said Indians closer Cody Allen, who dispatched the Jays in order in the ninth to save it, “shuts them
down and gets a lot of swings and misses. Whenever you get to come in behind a guy like that, you’re in a pretty good spot.”
Manager Terry Francona—who let the world know what unorthodoxy was coming by his use of Miller in the division series against the
Red Sox—won’t argue.
“There’s a reason we gave up what we did for him,” Francona drawled about the deal in which the Indians sent the Yankees four prospects
to land the lefthander. “We thought that he could be a guy that we could leverage in situations like we have. And it would make our
bullpen that much better and give us a chance to keep playing. And that’s exactly what he’s doing.”
Miller is the major reason the Jays resemble anything but the team who plowed their way to the ALCS in the first place. They abused the
Rangers with 22 runs and eight home runs in the division series three-sweep. Against the Indians in the first two ALCS games, they
have one run and ten hits, 80 percent of which have been singles. Some say the miracle is that they got two doubles out of the Indians’
pitching staff.
A day after Corey Kluber started Game One and kept the Jays from taking advantage of several scoring possibilities with a little help
from his bullpen buddies, Game Two starter Josh Tomlin—whose 0-5/11.48 August ERA knocked him out of the rotation until Carlos
Carasco and Danny Salazar went down with injuries—kept the Jays guessing wrongly, using his curve ball early and often to scramble
and hold.
Tomlin started only because originally scheduled Game Two starter Trevor Bauer suffered a pinkie cut while working on one of the
drones he’s said to love flying as a hobby. So Bauer starts in Timlin’s place in Game Three in Toronto.
Except that nobody wanted to know about them. Just about every eye in Progressive Field, in front of a television set, in front of a
radio, wanted to know about Miller. At this rate, with those multiple-inning wipeouts of all comers, you’ll see him in the starting
rotation, right?
Not so fast, according to Miller himself, who spent his first six major league seasons in the starting role. “I think that ship has
sailed, I had my chance,” the lefthander told reporters. “The bullpen is a lot of fun. I like coming to the ballpark every day knowing
I have a chance to pitch.”
“It’s fun to watch,” says Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis. “I’ve faced that before, which is not fun to watch.” Until Miller became
his teammate, Kipnis faced him for an 0-for-9/six punchout jacket.
Miller belies the former stereotype of the fuming, flame-spitting bullpen bull. Speaking so softly that you might need him to speak
into an amplifier, standing 6’7″ like a human lamppost, he looks and sounds more like a philosopher than a pitcher who spent his
Friday striking out five Jays and his Saturday striking out five more–including a string of nine straight punchouts until Ezequiel
Carrera ended it with a groundout Saturday.
He also couldn’t care less when he gets into a game as long as he gets in and gets the chance to pave one or another road to a
win.
“I keep getting asked this question,” Miller told ESPN about how special it is that he can come in at any time and pitch up. “I think
it’s being overplayed. The majority of relievers are ready to pitch from the moment the first pitch is made until the last out is made.
There are very few guys that have the structure where they know they’re going to pitch in this inning or that kind of thing. So I
don’t think it’s that big a challenge.”
How big a challenge would Miller consider accepting comparisons to Mariano Rivera? Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez has made one.
After Game Two, Martinez tweeted, “Not even the great Mariano Rivera I saw having as much success as Andrew Miller, overpowering
hitters.”
Not that Miller’s taking his success for granted.
“This lineup is so darn good, but you just got to try to find a way and have a little bit of confidence from the night before,” he said
after Game Two. “I felt a little bit crisper today, felt like I was executing a little better and getting ahead. That’s what you got to try
to do, is get ahead and get into these advantage counts because you can’t afford to get behind these guys.”
Those guys couldn’t afford to get behind the Indians, too. Now the Jays are in the hole. And even if they’re moving the ALCS to their
playpen, they know any time could be Miller time. Maybe even during the pre-game introductions.
