Miley masterful in 300th career start before 'pen loses strike zone and game

MILWAUKEE -- Wendell Miley stayed home in Louisiana on Oct. 17, 2018. That was the day his son, Brewers left-hander Wade Miley, started Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium, faced one batter, then departed to everyone’s surprise so he could start again two days later in Game 6. The Brewers thought the move might gain a favorable matchup or two for the young right-hander Brandon Woodruff, who followed, and thus gain the tiniest of edges in a tightly matched series.

Miley’s father was among the very few who knew about the gambit ahead of time.

“We’ve got a friend of mine from back home who works for the Dodgers, so I couldn’t tell nobody,” Wendell Miley said with a laugh, nearly five years later. “So, I was in LA -- but by that I mean Louisiana.”

Flash forward to Tuesday’s 7-3 loss to the Rockies, and dad was there in the flesh to see Wade make his 300th Major League start -- a threshold only 10 active pitchers have reached. Miley pitched six innings, allowing one run on two hits, and departed with a lead before the teams went back and forth all the way to the 10th inning, when the Brewers lost the strike zone and the game.

Lefty reliever Andrew Chafin faced three batters and retired none, walking Cole Tucker with the bases loaded to force home the go-ahead run. Rookie right-hander Abner Uribe fared no better. Uribe walked the first two hitters on seven pitches after a pitch-timer violation put him in an even more precarious situation right off the top. It became a four-run inning and one of the season’s most regrettable losses.

“Obviously, I wish we could have come out on top,” Miley said. “But the beautiful thing about this is we get to come back and do it again tomorrow.”

At 36 years old, and 15 years removed from being drafted by the D-backs 43rd overall in 2008, he’s pitching some of his best baseball. Miley has a 2.90 ERA in his 15 Brewers starts this season.

“He’s just the best. He’s a true pro, a beloved teammate and an absolutely fierce competitor,” said Miley’s agent, Tom O’Connell, who’s represented Miley since Miley’s junior year at Southeastern Louisiana University. “As soon as he crosses that line, that’s a different dude.”

In the case of Miley and Milwaukee, it’s a perfect fit. He made the All-Star team and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting in 2012, but six years and four teams later, his career had stalled.

Just as 2018 Spring Training was getting underway, O’Connell struck a Minor League deal with a Milwaukee team on the rise. The Brewers had acquired Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain that winter, and Woodruff was beginning to establish himself, with pitching prospects Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta on the way. Miley managed several injuries that season, a common theme in his career, but when he was healthy, he was terrific, delivering a 2.57 ERA in 80 2/3 regular-season innings, then scoreless starts in Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Rockies and in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers.

It revived his career. Miley made 33 starts with a 3.98 ERA for the World Series-bound Astros in 2019, then signed in Cincinnati for 2020 and threw a no-hitter in ‘21. Last season with the Cubs and this season back with the Brewers, when he can stay healthy, he’s been as solid as they come.

“He’s got a great baseball mind, is the best thing,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “You’ll see on TV he’s sitting down on this end of the dugout for a lot of the game and he really watches. I learn from him, watching the game. He sees a lot. It’s fun being around players like that.”

The trick for Miley is staying off the injured list. He’s missed time this year with a muscle strain near his left shoulder and, more recently, a bout of elbow soreness. Tuesday marked his second start back.

“All of them start off throwing, and then they eventually learn how to pitch, but then you have to deal with your body wearing down,” Wendell Miley said. “That’s the toughest part of it. I’ve been on him to do what he’s doing now for years, and he always said, ‘I don’t need to do that, Daddy.’ He almost ate his way out of Arizona.

“But he sees now. You always wonder, had he done all of the right things, [would he have] gone much longer? How could you go longer? Fifteen years is a long time. You can’t argue with the path he took.”

When he arrived to catch the end of batting practice, the senior Miley claimed not to know about his son’s milestone start.

“I forgot all about that being [No. 300],” he said. “That don’t bother him. He just goes out and does his thing.

“Wow, I can’t believe it’s still going on and that he’s in his 13th season. I’m just very proud of him and I thank God every day for the gift he was given to play the game, and for the game itself being so good to him.”