Miller's strong start unravels in big 7th inning

CLEVELAND -- For six innings on Tuesday night, Bobby Miller showcased some of the best stuff of his Major League career, with the only marks on his ledger coming thanks to four straight two-out hits in the fourth inning.

When he induced a groundout from Gabriel Arias in the seventh inning, it marked the longest outing of the 24-year-old's big league career.

After that, things began to unfurl.

After allowing a single to Will Brennan and walking Bo Naylor, Miller was pulled for reliever Caleb Ferguson, who allowed five runs (two charged to Miller and three charged to himself) to give Cleveland the lead in what became an 8-3 loss for the Dodgers at Progressive Field.

“Going into the seventh inning, I felt good with [Miller’s] pitch count and stress,” manager Dave Roberts said.

With one out and runners on first and second, Roberts didn’t want Miller to have to go against Myles Straw, who is tough to strike out (97th percentile in whiff rate) and nearly impossible to double up (94th percentile in sprint speed), so he elected to call on the left-handed Ferguson.

Straw grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring up Steven Kwan, who hit the game-tying single into left field before José Ramírez gave the Guardians the lead one batter later on an RBI single to right. Kole Calhoun followed Ramírez and blew the game open with a three-run home run down the right-field line that had a launch angle of 42 degrees and an exit velocity of 98.4 mph.

“I just need to make better pitches,” Ferguson said. “That’s kind of it; just pitch better. I made a good pitch to Kwan and made a bad pitch to Calhoun.”

While Miller was charged with the third loss of his career, his start still had plenty of positives. He threw all five of his pitches and generated a career-high 20 whiffs, seven of which came on his fastball.

“I knew they were going to swing a lot, but I knew they weren’t going to miss a lot, so that surprised me a little bit,” Miller said.

He was able to settle in after allowing two runs in the fourth as well, as he didn’t allow a baserunner in the fifth and sixth innings before going back out for the seventh.

“I was really in attack mode, and wasn’t afraid of the strike zone,” Miller said. “I just wanted to start with everything in the zone, and go out of the zone when I needed to.”

With Miller starting with an extra day of rest thanks to off-days on Sunday and Monday, Roberts said he had no qualms about sending the rookie out for the seventh inning.

“This was a day that I felt it just lined up to see how he looked in the seventh inning,” Roberts said. “I thought it made sense based off how he was throwing the ball.”

Will Smith provided the brunt of the offense with a two-run home run in the first inning off starter Noah Syndergaard that traveled 400 feet into the bleachers in left field.

“He just kind of hung a slider that I was able to get into the air,” said Smith, who caught eight of Syndergaard’s starts earlier this season before the Dodgers traded Syndergaard to Cleveland. “I like Noah. He’s a good dude. It’s good to have that on him now.”

The Dodgers added another run off Syndergaard in the third inning after Mookie Betts drew a one-out walk, stole second base and came in to score on an RBI single from Freddie Freeman. That was all the Dodgers were able to get off Syndergaard, who threw his first quality start since April 19.

“Honestly, I thought it was a lot of the same stuff we saw when he was with us,” Roberts said of Syndergaard. "Max [Muncy] hit two balls hard and Freddie [Freeman] hit a ball hard. He throws strikes and changes speeds and [in the] middle innings, he was throwing a lot of changeups that we couldn’t stay back on. He did a nice job tonight.”

Ferguson’s rough outing marked the third time he’s allowed multiple runs over his last nine outings, as he ended July by allowing two runs (both unearned) to the Reds and also blew a save against the Padres on Aug. 5 by allowing four runs (all unearned). That said, Fergsuon still has faith in his ability to get outs consistently.

“[Roberts is] going to ask me to take the ball tomorrow, so I need to be ready to go,” he said.