Miley provides a steady hand to rotation
DENVER — Cognizant his first half of the season was over after Wednesday’s start against the Colorado Rockies, lefthander Wade Miley instructed his manager to keep him in for however long his arsenal was effective.
A.J. Hinch hasn’t seen many starts extend into the fifth inning of late. The eagerness was appreciated. Required, even, to spare a spent bullpen another night of covering too many innings.
Then, the first inning started. Ten of Miley’s first 13 pitches were balls. He was within one pitch of walking in a run with nobody out. Hinch resisted the temptation to activate his bullpen. Pitching coach Brent Strom strolled from the dugout for an earlier-thanusual mound visit.
“There’s nothing like almost getting a guy up (in the bullpen) in the first inning and then you go six strong,” Hinch quipped.
The final act of Miley’s fine first half mirrored many of the 17 starts that preceded it. There was one wobbly inning where Miley worked around traffic. He gained confidence as the game progressed, finishing six stellar innings on a season-high 108 pitches and with a 4-2 win in two.
A pillar of consistency
Miley (7-4) will enter the AllStar break with a 3.28 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He has finished only one major league season — his 2012 All-Star campaign — with a WHIP lower than 1.2.
Teammate Gerrit Cole has an identical earned-run average. Among qualified American League starters, Miley possesses the 10th-lowest ERA. Above him are the likes of Justin Verlander and Charlie Morton, pitchers who are the antithesis of Miley.
Still, Miley is seeing results, providing the Astros’ unsettled rotation a steady hand.
As the trade deadline nears, the Astros still search for starting pitching depth, but Miley’s reliability cannot be understated. He has been a pillar of consistency, slotting beautifully behind Verlander and Cole with a different approach and arsenal from the two fireballers.
“I’m obviously pleased,” Miley said of his first half. “We set out to win ballgames and we have. Individually, I just try to go out and help the team. I just try to put us in a position to win the game every time I pitch and give everything I got.”
Ten of Miley’s 18 starts this season qualified as quality. He has pitched into the sixth inning 13 times and only twice failed to finish five.
His willingness to adapt to the Astros’ subtle suggestions is evident. Miley remains reliant on his cutter — even more so than last season in Milwaukee — but unlocking two other pitches has allowed him the luxury of being unpredictable and increased his strikeouts.
Miley is throwing his changeup 17.9 percent of the time — more frequently than any season since 2016 — and getting stellar results. Opponents are hitting .177 and slugging .225 against it.
Last season, teams hit .310 against the changeup. In 2016, Miley allowed a .308 average against it.
Coupled with the changeup, Miley is more apt to elevate his four-seam fastball, something he acknowledges he was hesitant to try during his first Astros spring training. The club implores most of, if not all, its pitchers to at least try to incorporate the trait.
Its newest acquisition now can do it with confidence. Take Wednesday. Command of Miley’s cutter was nonexistent in the first two innings. Going to the fourseamer was his only option. He notched three of his first four strikeouts with it. Miley threw it 40 times compared to 43 cutters.
“It was huge for me,” Miley said of his four-seamer, which he throws 17 percent of the time. “They were on the cutter more, so I was able to get a couple fourseamers by guys. The changeup played even better. Then when I was able to find the cutter, I was able to mix back and forth.”
Becoming a strikeout artist
More mixing is manifesting in his strikeouts. He has struck out at least five hitters in seven of his last eight starts. Adding six more on Wednesday left the lefty on pace to punch out at least 150 batters this season. Should he do it, it’d be his most since 2014.
Perhaps the only unsightly stat of Miley’s early Astros tenure started to correct itself against Colorado. He entered this outing with a 4.94 ERA in nine other road starts. Allowing one earned run over six innings in the sport’s most hitter-friendly ballpark pared his road ERA to 4.56.
He required 26 pitches to escape that first inning where, somehow, he surrendered just one run.
“I felt lost on an island out there,” Miley said. “I couldn’t throw a strike. I was trying to throw it over the plate and let them hit it. The last thing you want to do is walk guys onto the basepaths. I was able to get through it and kind of found some traction in the third and fourth.”
Added Hinch: “I stayed patient with him, but he got better as the game went on, obviously, with his command and control. He felt better at the end than he did at the beginning.”