Miller already eyeing adjustments after tough start vs. Cubs

CHICAGO -- Bobby Miller opened his sophomore season with one of his best starts of his career, striking out a career-high 11 batters over six dominant innings. His second start of the season, however, turned out to be the complete opposite.

Miller, who was celebrating his 25th birthday on Friday in front of family and friends, struggled to limit the damage, allowing five runs over just 1 2/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 9-7 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

“Second inning was just pretty unacceptable,” Miller said. “Just didn’t feel the best out of the stretch today. But no worries. Next bullpen I’m just going to do a ton of work out of the stretch and just treat it game-like like I always do and move on to the next.”

For the second consecutive game, Miller came out of the gates hot, striking out the side on just 15 pitches. In the first frame, Miller was blowing 98-99 mph heaters past Cubs’ hitters on a cold afternoon at Wrigley Field. The second frame wasn’t as kind.

After getting Christopher Morel to ground out to start the inning, Miller left a fastball over the middle of the plate to Dansby Swanson, who was able to hit it over the left-center-field wall despite the wind blowing in. Once Swanson got Miller, things seemed to unravel for the right-hander.

Miller walked former Dodger Michael Busch, who also homered on Friday, and then gave up back-to-back singles to Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal that tied the game at 2. Once Miller got Yan Gomes for the second out, he just needed to make one quality pitch to end the inning and get his offense back on the field.

Instead, Miller got behind Ian Happ in the count and walked him on eight pitches. Miller then got Seiya Suzuki into a two-strike hole, but the Dodgers’ right-hander failed to put him away as the Japanese slugger sent a two-run double over Teoscar Hernández’s head in right field. That ended Miller’s outing after 43 pitches in the second.

“There were four, five batters where you were a strike away or a ground ball right to an infielder instead of through a hole, you get out of there with two runs, maybe three,” said Dodgers catcher Will Smith. “That’s baseball. It’s not fun when it’s going on. You’ve just got to make a little better pitch, do a little more to make better things happen.”

After Miller, the Dodgers struggled to put up many zeroes on Friday. Dinelson Lamet gave up Busch's solo homer in the third and Michael Grove continued his slow start to the season, allowing three runs over three innings.

The rare bad pitching performance cost the Dodgers, who continued their hot start at the plate. Hernández led the way again for Los Angeles with four RBIs, putting him at 14 on the young season, which leads the Majors. The 14 RBIs for Hernández is the most for a player in his first 10 games with the Dodgers since 1920, passing Manny Ramirez, who had 13 in 2008 on his way to the "Mannywood" craze that took over Dodger Stadium.

Shohei Ohtani also chipped in with a two-run homer in the fifth inning, his second homer in as many games. After a slow start at the plate, Ohtani appears to be in a better place with his mechanics. Smith also had a four-hit day, his second four-hit game of the young season.

With the seven runs scored Friday, the Dodgers have scored five or more runs in all 10 games this season, setting a new franchise record.

“[Today] was really good from the offense,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “They just kept putting up runs and kept fighting and even the last out made, we had a chance to tie the ballgame. … Offensively we were sound and gave ourselves a chance to win.”

Friday served as the first true road game for Los Angeles this season. With all the hype that surrounds them and the added attention, the Dodgers are expecting even more hostile environments when they hit the road this year. They’re also going to get every team’s best punch. That was certainly the case against the Cubs.

“They made the plays they needed to and really minimized our potential for more damage,” Roberts said.