Bryce Miller solid in likely final rehab start

After missing all of spring training with an oblique injury, Bryce Miller’s month of rehab likely wrapped up tonight in Everett. So far, Miller has made four starts on his rehab assignment:

• 4/18 (AAA): 1.2 innings, 10 batters faced, three runs on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts; 33 pitches (21 strikes)
• 4/24 (A+): 3 innings, 11 batters faced, no runs on a hit with a walk and six strikeouts; 47 pitches (35 strikes)
• 4/30: (AAA): 4 innings, 15 batters faced, no runs on two hits with two walks and four strikeouts, 53 pitches (36 strikes)
• 5/6 (A+): 5 innings, 19 batters faced, no runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts, 61 pitches (38 strikes)

Miller was maybe too efficient tonight against eager High-A hitters excited to swing against the big-leaguer, keeping him from increasing his pitch count significantly—he had to finish out his outing in the AquaSox bullpen to get in his required pitches—but all the indicators were there: he held his fastball velocity well, still hitting 96-98 into the later innings of his outing, and mixed in all his secondaries. Postgame, Miller joked about how quickly he got through his five innings in typical Bryce-style:

If you’re a little concerned about the walks on Miller’s ledger, that’s fair, but also, Miller was adamant about wanting to work in all of his pitches during his rehab starts, so take the walks with a grain of salt. The one thing to maybe be aware of is how often his fastball seemed to exhibit extreme downward movement to land for balls, which is something that felt like a consistent issue during his rehab assignments. But the bigger benchmarks were working at a consistent fastball velocity, throwing all his pitches and throwing strikes or near-strikes, and getting through his projected innings, and Miller hit all those targets with flying colors.

Miller didn’t face much adversity from the low minors hitters of the Diamondbacks system, but he did have to work around some traffic in the first after giving up a BABIP double and then walking the next hitter he saw on four pitches. He got out of the jam when the next hitter went after the first pitch he saw for a GIDP. Miller continued on like that, playing with his food a bit; he walked a hitter with two outs in the second, trying to get the feel for his splitter, only to come back for an easy 4-3 groundout. In the third, he issued a walk with two outs (boo! hiss!) but got his first strikeout of the day on the very next batter: