The Cubs will head into this afternoon’s must-win game with the Padres with the three-game series knotted at one win apiece. One of the things I keep returning to about yesterday’s loss is how different it feels from previous Postseason losses. This wasn’t the agony of a poor managerial decision or a ball through the legs. Yesterday was a game where the Cubs ran into an excellent pitching staff at the top of their game. It’s impossible to win if you can’t score runs. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes
run-production is an offensive issue and a different approach would yield different results, but I’m pretty sure yesterday wasn’t that. In fact, I’m also pretty sure Mason Miller might have thrown the most absurd 1.2 innings I’ve ever seen a relief pitcher throw.
Miller struck out all five of the Cubs he faced, and honestly, just look at this:
That pitch to Seiya is a strike. Good on him for swinging at it. It looked impossible to hit. I was wondering if it was the best pitch I’d ever seen in my life, but then Miller threw this to Carson Kelly and well, I’ll let the Pitching Ninja speak for himself:
That’s 104.5 miles per hour. At the corner. Of course Kelly just stares at it. He can’t possibly be expected to hit that pitch. Perhaps you’d like to hear from more than just the guy who built a career off pitching GIFs so there’s this from Dennis Lin’s write up of yesterday’s came in The Athletic:
The 6-foot-5 right-hander took the mound after Adrian Morejon, the aforementioned lefty, and pitched as if he had been transported from the future.
“I don’t think there’s been a more dominant performance from what I’ve seen,” Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla said.
“Have never seen dominance like that before,” one rival evaluator wrote in a text.
“I was laughing a little bit today,” Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “I mean, it’s not fair. Yeah, that ain’t it. It’s good to be on my side — it’s great. But as a hitter, nah. That ain’t it.”
The playoffs are an elimination tournament where you need a lot of skill and a bit of luck to survive a gauntlet of equally talented opposing baseball talent. But every now and again they showcase a performance so unbelievable it’s impossible to feel bad about losing to it. So far in this Wild Card Series, the Cubs have run into one of those performances from Mason Miller.
In two games Miller has thrown 2.2 innings. He’s faced nine batters and struck out eight of them. I sorted yesterday’s pitches by pitch velocity, this is the result:
For perspective I wanted to see how those top pitch velocities looked in a game where the Cubs own flamethrower, Daniel Palencia, had a day of his own to see how the two pitchers compare. Spoiler alert, there is no comparison:
Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to an impossible pitching performance and be grateful you get another shot to with the series the next day. The good news for the Cubs is that with Miller throwing 40 pitches in the last two games, I have to imagine he’ll be unavailable or at least limited in today’s winner take all Wild Card finale.
