TAMPA—Braves right-hander Shelby Miller said he wasn't worried about the poor results in his spring debut with the team because he felt good physically.
Miller didn’t have to make such a distinction after his second start. Facing a Yankees lineup that probably will look much the same on opening day, Miller allowed two hits and a run in three innings on Thursday night.
In his first spring start on Saturday the Tigers touched Miller for four runs on three hits and two walks in 1/3 inning of a split-squad game. This time Miller said he was in tune with catcher Christian Bethancourt while locating his pitches.
“Today was learning from last time and trying to get a good feel for the zone, which I felt like we did a good job of,” Miler said. “Hit the corners a lot and threw some good curveballs and some good changeups, which is something we’ve been working on.”
Miller was the centerpiece of the haul the Braves got from the Cardinals in the Jason Heyward trade. Miller is set to begin the season in the starting rotation after he was 26-18 with a 3.33 ERA in 69 games (63 starts) for the Cardinals.
Against the Yankees Miller allowed a two-out single in the first inning and a two-out walk in the second but retired the next batter both times. He ran into trouble when Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius tripled to left-center to lead off the third.
Jacoby Ellsbury reached base when Miller opted to flip the ball to home plate on a slow roller to prevent Gregorius from trying to score. Gregorius scored on a fielder’s choice and Miller got out of the inning when second baseman Pedro Ciriaco made a diving play on Carlos Beltran’ ground ball to start a double play.
“That inning could have been a lot worse and we got out of it, so that was a positive thing,” Miller said.
