SAN DIEGO — When the Padres landed Mason Miller in a Trade Deadline day blockbuster, this is the kind of dominance they probably envisioned.
Miller became just the second Padre in history to complete an immaculate inning — three strikeouts on nine pitches. He threw nine consecutive sliders and set down the Orioles’ 2-3-4 hitters — Jeremiah Jackson, Ryan Mountcastle and Emmanuel Rivera — in order in the eighth inning of the Padres’ 7-5 loss.
In the process, Miller joined Brian Lawrence as the only Padres pitchers to achieve the feat. Coincidentally, Lawrence also did so against Baltimore, setting down Brook Fordyce, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Melvin Mora on June 12, 2002.
Miller has been everything the Padres could’ve hoped for since they landed him from the A’s along with JP Sears in exchange for four prospects. He’s posted a 1.50 ERA across 12 innings with 22 K’s — and a whopping 50% strikeout rate.
He took that dominance up another notch on Wednesday, getting Jackson to look at strike one, before inducing eight straight swings-and-misses to add his name to the baseball history books.
