The Seattle Mariners have been steadily rotating their starting pitchers into games in the first week of spring training. Entering Thursday, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby had all gotten time on the mound.
It was Bryce Miller‘s turn during a split-squad game against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Ariz. And Miller put together a solid outing against a lineup that featured several of the Giants best hitters.
Miller pitched 1.2 innings and let up just one walk and no hits. He struck out three batters. Fifteen of his 29 pitches went for strikes.
The third-year Seattle starting pitcher didn’t induce a strike with his new cutter he’s been working on, per a post on “X” (formerly known as Twitter) from The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish. But his fastball was clocked at 98 miles an hour. One of his strikeouts came with a fastball and the other came with a knuckle curve.
Miller’s cutter he’s been working on has been measured with 14 inches of vertical drop and seven inches of horizontal movement inside.
Miller faced a lineup mostly consisting of San Francisco backups. The only two anticipated starters in Giants’ lineup he faced was first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and center fielder Jung Hoo Lee.
Miller had a 2.94 ERA with a 12-8 record in 2024. He struck out 171 batters in 180.1 innings pitched across 31 starts.
The starting pitchers haven’t had the cleanest starts so far in spring training. But based on his little bit of action so far, Miller seems ready to go when games start to count on March 27.