The San Diego Padres are on a fantastic run right now, winning five straight games and 15 of their last 19 to secure sole possession of the second National League wild card spot entering play on Friday.
For an extended stretch, it looked like the Padres weren’t going to make noise in the playoff picture by season’s end. For two months, San Diego wasn’t playing good baseball, and the offense was massively underperforming.
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Now, the Padres offense is getting hot, and the team is playing with a ton of confidence, especially after sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers this week. But even when the team wasn’t playing up to their standard, there’s been one constant throughout the season: All-Star closer Mason Miller.
Miller has been unreal since joining the Padres at last year’s trade deadline, posting a 4-1 record with a 0.84 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 138 strikeouts to 29 walks, 16.6 K/9, 32 saves, 490 ERA+, and 0.82 FIP through 71 games (74.2 innings).
This season, Miller has further established himself as the best relief pitcher in the game, converting 30 of 31 save opportunities with a 0.88 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 93 strikeouts to 19 walks, 16.3 K/9, 468 ERA+, and 0.68 FIP through 49 games (51.1 innings).
Miller was drawing early consideration for the NL Cy Young award because of his pure dominance. He had a scoreless inning streak of 34.2 innings, dating back to Aug. 6 of last season, which came to a controversial end on April 27 against the Chicago Cubs.
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In ESPN’s latest in-season top 50 players ranking, Miller came in at No. 23 and is the only reliever on the list.
“He has come back to the surface of the planet somewhat, though his sub-1.00 ERA is still too good to say that planet is Earth,” Bradford Doolittle wrote Thursday.
“Miller has been scored upon in only five outings this season and continues to look all but untouchable. The Padres aren’t a shoo-in to earn a spot in the NL playoff bracket — they currently have 53% playoff odds, per Fangraphs — but if they get there, Miller looms as a bogeyman lurking in the anxieties of every opponent.”
With how great the Padres offense has been over the last month and the starting rotation reinforcements brought in at the trade deadline, the Padres have a shot to make a lot of noise in the postseason if they continue playing well.
And what team wouldn’t have all the confidence in the world when it has Miller lurking in the back end of the bullpen?