From Milton to LA: Hill reaches career peak

Dodgers left-hander gets Game 3 start

Dodgers starter Rich Hill was an intimidating figure on the mound for Milton High in the late 1990s.

The lanky southpaw is expected to open Friday night’s Game 3 of the World Series against the Red Sox in Los Angeles.

Hill overwhelmed opposing batters in the Bay State Conference with a moving 90 mph fastball and a sweeping curve, but those attributes alone did not make him a Cincinnati Reds draft pick in 1999 or a scholarship pitcher at Michigan.

Ted Curley, who coached Milton from 1987-2012, described Hill as a thinking man’s pitcher who was more interested in mechanics and craftmanship than pitch counts and statistics.

“He was a very intimidating kid and opposing kids did not dig in against him when he was throwing 90 mph with movement,” said Curley, who currently coaches at O’Bryant High.

“He really worked his craft. He was thinking ahead, even when he was on the team as a freshman. He was always working on mechanics trying figure out what arm slot he wanted and what worked and what did not.

“He had his head in the game growing up.”

Hill was the Bay State MVP his senior year and an everyday player who led the league in strikeouts and home runs.

“He was big and overpowering as a pitcher but he was a very good athlete, very smooth and was a darn good hitter in high school,” Curley said. “He could hit the ball a mile.”

Hill began his long and difficult major league odyssey when he signed with the Cubs after being drafted in the fourth round in 2002. Hill’s journey featured eight stops, including two stints with the Red Sox, countless minor league assignments and a variety of injuries.

Hill returned home after being released from the Washington Nationals in June 2015, and reconnected with former teammate Jimmy Moonan, who was the head coach at Milton and an assistant for the Milton American Legion team.

He used the downtime to rework his routine with the help of Milton High catcher Jason Taylor, who became his personal backstop. Their combined efforts paid off when Hill signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in August 2015.

“It was kind of a cool connection having someone I looked up to in high school come back and help out our team,” Moonan said. “The Red Sox actually came to Cunningham Park to give him a tryout and the Milton catcher caught him during the tryout. “

Hill attracted a steady crowd at his table during the Dodgers media session yesterday on the fourthfloor pavilion at Fenway. The 38-year-old is grateful to represent the opposition in his childhood ballpark at a high point in his professional career. But Hill said he is forever grateful for the support system in Milton and the Red Sox organization for getting back on his game in the dog days of 2015.

“Jason and many other guys on that American Legion team said “come up to Cunningham Park and these are the times we will be working out,”” Hill said. “That was really cool time for us. You see the love and the passion those guys have for baseball.

“Just to bring it to this stage and get this opportunity with the number of things that actually fell in place. For us to come back to Boston and start again at the major league level. For people who didn’t know it wouldn’t believe it.”