SURPRISE, Ariz. — The first time caught him by surprise. The second time seemed to be an annoyance. The third time left him shaking his head. The fourth time started to build irritation. And the fifth time that Bryce Miller’s cap fell off his head following a pitch in the first inning, well, he could only laugh at the spectacle and any embarrassment.
Making his first Cactus League start of the spring, after two “relief” outings, the easygoing Miller felt a few butterflies doing battle in his stomach on Sunday morning.
Born and raised in Texas, he was a fan of the Rangers, a team he watched plenty as a kid growing up in New Braunfels. Manager Bruce Bochy rolled out most of the regulars from the projected opening-day lineup, including Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia and Nathaniel Lowe. His counterpart on the mound would be two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom, who was making his first Cactus League appearance of the season after being slowed by pain in his left side.
“Being the first start, I had a little more time to think about it when you start,” he said. “It kind of comes with deGrom being on the other said and being from Texas and also knowing some of the hitters in the lineup.”
Given his talent, his overpowering stuff, his past success and ability to still overwhelm hitters, deGrom is still a pitcher that’s revered by young pitchers such as Miller.
“Growing up watching deGrom, it was cool to look over and just see him warming up and then sit in the dugout and watching him throw,” Miller said. “It’s just kind of surreal.”
And then he couldn’t keep his hat on his head.
“It was annoying,” he said. “I need to install a chin strap.”
His size 7¼ hat isn’t tight, but the fit became awkward when he put the pitch-com device on the inside of it near his ear. It left the hat unbalanced with one side tighter than the other. It just wouldn’t stay on through his delivery.
After the first inning, they added some padding to the other side to even it out for a proper fit.
That first inning, Miller struggled to locate his fastball with precision. He issued a one-out walk to Corey Seager on a pitch that probably should’ve been called a strike. A wild pitch allowed Seager to advance to second and later score on Nathaniel Lowe’s single to left field. He came back to strikeout Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung to the end inning.
“He was pretty composed after he figured out how to keep his hat on,” manager Scott Servais joked.
deGrom pitched three shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out four batters. He flashed a fastball that hit 99 mph and a nasty slider in the high 80s.
Miller couldn’t quite match that effort, but he was still solid. He worked four innings, allowing two runs on with two walks and four strikeouts.
“He’s got some things to learn, but today was a really good experience for him,” Servais said. “He’s a Texas kid pitching against the Rangers and everything else that goes along with that. So again, baby steps, but experience is huge for these guys. And he’s getting some of it right now.”
Miller, the Mariners top pitching prospect, showed a fastball that reached 98 mph and two variations of his slider.
His second run allowed came in the fourth inning when he misplaced a fastball that Jung hit just over the wall in left field. That sort of hit was either a double or an out at T-Mobile Park.
“That the only one of all the fastballs that I gave him that was actually up in the zone,” Miller said.
Miller might make one more outing in a Cactus League game, but the Mariners could also reassign him to minor league camp to get ready for his minor league season. He will likely start the season at Double-A Arkansas. But as the Mariners top pitching prospect and given what he’s shown this spring, he could get called up to make a spot start if needed or eventually provide bullpen help.
Servais shrugs off projections of Miller being more of a reliever.
“I definitely think it’s a starting pitcher mix based on his delivery, his stuff, his demeanor, just him as a whole,” Servais said. “I think he’s a starting pitcher. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t pitch out of the bullpen, but I see him as a starter.”
Miller feels like he’s shown well in his first MLB spring training.
“I feel like every outing I’ve gone out and competed and threw it over the plate for the most part and it plays,” he said. “I’ll continue to build off of each outing wherever the next one is.”
And he’s seen that his stuff cannot only get big league hitters out, but it can also overwhelm them when executed.
“Honestly, in my last three outings, I still haven’t felt like I’ve had everything working and I’ve still been ahead (in counts) the whole time and I’ve still had success,” he said. “Moving forward, I feel like there’s stuff to build on, there’s stuff to work on and I can have room for even more success whenever I’m ahead in counts and feel good with all my off-speed pitches.”