{"id":4701,"date":"2025-10-01T21:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=4701"},"modified":"2025-10-01T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:41:10","slug":"mason-miller-makes-postseason-debut-pitching-for-san-diego-padres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=4701","title":{"rendered":"Mason Miller makes postseason debut pitching for San Diego Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"


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CHICAGO — Mason Miller<\/a> was awake in bed early on the morning of July 31 when he got the phone call he spent the previous night preparing for. He figured it was coming. A day earlier, Miller had been held out of the A\u2019s game against Seattle, despite the fact that he was rested and his team carried a slim lead into the ninth inning.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sure enough, A\u2019s general manager David Forst was on the other line to confirm what Miller already suspected: He\u2019d been traded. To San Diego<\/a>. Now, two months later, Miller is on the verge of making his postseason debut in this week\u2019s best-of-three National League Wild Card Series<\/a> between the Padres and Cubs at Wrigley Field.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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So, when did Miller start mentally readying himself for this<\/em>? When did the excitement of pitching in the postseason begin to set in?\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAs soon as I found out about the trade,\u201d Miller said at Monday\u2019s Wild Card Series workout day.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Padres, of course, gave up a king\u2019s ransom to acquire Miller — and they did so with moments like this one in mind. San Diego dealt Leo De Vries, MLB Pipeline\u2019s No. 3 prospect<\/a>, along with three other prospects in a blockbuster<\/a> that shook the baseball world.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By Deadline day, the Padres still hadn\u2019t made any trades to bolster a roster that featured several obvious flaws. So it was no surprise that general manager A.J. Preller would be aggressive on July 31. When is he not?\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ultimately, Preller added the left fielder the Padres needed (Ram\u00f3n Laureano). He added the DH they needed (Ryan O\u2019Hearn). He added the catcher they needed (Freddy Fermin). But did the Padres need another reliever? They already boasted the sport\u2019s top bullpen — the first bullpen in MLB history to send three relievers to the All-Star Game<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cYou\u2019re adding to a strength,\u201d Preller said in his post-Deadline press conference. \u201cWe have an opportunity to shorten the game. We want to take that.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There\u2019s no better time for shortening games than in the postseason, with extra off-days and increased stakes with every pitch. Plus, the season-ending left quad injury<\/a> suffered by Jason Adam made Miller\u2019s presence even more crucial.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Since his arrival, there\u2019s an argument to be made that Miller has been the best reliever in baseball. Or, maybe there\u2019s no argument at all. Miller has posted a 0.77 ERA, while punching out an absurd 54 percent of the batters he\u2019s faced. In early September, he became the second player in Padres history to record an immaculate inning<\/a>, throwing nine straight sliders and getting nine straight strikes — the last eight of which were swings and misses — in the eighth inning against the Orioles. And, oh yeah, he throws a 103-mph fastball, too.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But as good as Miller was in August and September, the trade was made with the postseason in mind. The Padres think Miller can own October, too. He\u2019s not their closer. But they think he\u2019s more than that. He\u2019s a weapon they can deploy for multiple innings in the game\u2019s highest-leverage moments prior to the ninth.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt could be whenever,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s just about being prepared. \u2026 It\u2019s about matchups. But it\u2019s the playoffs, too. So everybody is going to be asked to do a little bit more, I would imagine.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Two weeks ago, manager Mike Shildt offered what is likely to be a sneak peak into Miller\u2019s playoff usage. The Padres were facing the Mets in New York in a game with massive stakes in the NL Wild Card race. Clinging to a lead in the seventh, Shildt called for Miller with one out and Juan Soto and Pete Alonso due up.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Miller proceeded to punch out both. An inning later, he retired the side in order. They weren\u2019t the final outs of the game — those belonged to closer Robert Suarez. But they were the most important outs.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe take pride in the fact that if we get a lead past the fifth, we have an extremely good record,\u201d Miller said. \u201cYou just pass the stick to the next guy, and you feel really good about him coming in, too. Really it\u2019s just about doing that — getting the ball to the next guy, until Bob gets us into the clubhouse.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After that outing in New York, Miller noted, \u201cWe\u2019re at the time of the year where you just kind of go until the wheels fall off.\u201d So, yes, he\u2019s open to being used heavily in the playoffs. Sounds like he wants it, actually. And given the importance of each out in a short series, you can bet he\u2019ll be used aggressively this week against the Cubs.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s what he envisioned on the morning of July 31, after all.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt felt like a second Opening Day,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAugust and September can sometimes feel like a little bit of a drag — the dog days, if you will. But I felt like I had a two-month sprint [in San Diego]. And I couldn\u2019t be more excited about the opportunity to play in the postseason.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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CHICAGO — Mason Miller was awake in bed early on the morning of July 31 when he got the phone call he spent the previous night preparing for. He figured it was coming. A day earlier, Miller had been held out of the A\u2019s game against Seattle, despite the fact that he was rested and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mason-Miller-makes-postseason-debut-pitching-for-San-Diego-Padres.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4703,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions\/4703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}