ANAHEIM — If Walker Buehler’s start against the Angels on Tuesday represented a step forward in his attempt to pitch his way onto the postseason roster, Bobby Miller came out moonwalking on Wednesday.
The first five Angels batters reached base and scored against Miller, who gave up seven runs in five innings as the Angels beat the Dodgers, 10-1, on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.
The nine-run margin of victory matched the largest of the Angels’ 58 wins this season. The two SoCal neighbors split their four meetings this season, with each team winning once at the opposing team’s ballpark.
“The atmosphere that we’re in is a playoff atmosphere,” Angels manager Ron Washington said of the two games played in front of sellout crowds in Anaheim. “We’re not in the playoffs, but it’s nice to be in that atmosphere. And they rose to the challenge, and hopefully we just can keep building on it.”
Miller might also be on the outside looking in when the playoffs start. He has not made a case to stay in the Dodgers’ plans when October comes.
The Angels made Miller’s night miserable from the start. Leadoff man Taylor Ward drew a seven-pitch walk, two close calls going against Miller. He hit Zach Neto two pitches later and Nolan Schanuel loaded the bases with a single.
Anthony Rendon drove in two runs with a ground ball single through the middle and Mickey Moniak jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Miller, sending it into the right-field seats for a three-run home run and a 5-0 lead.
Moniak has been the most threatening hitter in the Angels’ lineup since the start of August. In his past 22 games, he has batted .320 (24 for 75) with seven home runs (including four in his past five games) and a 1.030 OPS.
Miller struck out the side after Moniak’s latest home run, but he gave up a leadoff homer to Angels DH Niko Kavadas in the second inning. The No. 9 hitter came into the game batting .079 (3 for 38) in 12 games since being promoted for the first time.
Miller retired nine consecutive batters after Kavadas’ home run – then gave up another home run to Ward when he led off the fifth inning. That was Ward’s fifth home run during a 14-game hitting streak and the first of his three hits Wednesday.
“Besides the first inning, there was a lot of good in there,” said Miller, whose ERA is now 7.79 in his sophomore season. “Just a couple good fastball hitters, couple bad pitch selections. … There’s some good fastball hitters and just threw the wrong pitch at the wrong time, and they put some good swings on some not really bad pitches.”
Miller has seemingly done that a lot. He has allowed eight home runs in four starts since returning from the minor leagues.
His fastball remains his biggest problem. The velocity on his four-seamer was down at times this season after he returned from a shoulder injury. It was back up Wednesday to an average of 98.3 mph. But he didn’t get a single swing-and-miss on it and two of the home runs were hit off four-seam fastballs. The third was a two-seamer.
“You have to, as a starting pitcher, to be able to get ahead with different secondary pitches. You have to,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Unless you have 80-command and right now he doesn’t. It’s a fastball that hitters see so it either has to be commanded really well and moved to different locations or you have to be able to get ahead with different breaking balls. That’s just the way it goes. And if you can’t do that, then the catcher is in a tough spot. We have to get better.”
Miller will remain in the rotation and start against the Chicago Cubs next week – “I don’t think that right now we don’t have another alternative” – but Roberts acknowledged Miller’s chance at a postseason role is fading.
“I think where we’re at right now with certain players – Bobby, in this particular case – performance matters,” Roberts said. “It’s got to be better. And he knows that. You just can’t go out there and give up five runs and put us behind the 8-ball. It’s not about the stuff because as we’ve seen the stuff is there. I say it time and time again, it’s about performance. You’ve got to perform and give us a chance.”
Angels starter Griffin Canning has taken his share of lumps this season, but Wednesday was his best start of the season.
The 28-year-old right-hander had a 7.10 ERA in the first or second innings of his previous 26 starts this season. It was such an issue the Angels used an opener for him against the Toronto Blue Jays two starts ago. He followed that with six scoreless innings.
He was his own opening act Wednesday, retiring Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in order in the first inning and giving up just two harmless singles through six scoreless innings.
Canning’s slider and changeup were particularly effective, getting 13 of his 18 swings-and-misses against the Dodgers.
“It was just a lot of fun competing against those guys. Obviously a really, really great lineup, so that kind of brings out the best in you,” Canning said.
“I feel like I was utilizing kind of everything. To some of those lefties I was dropping in curveballs to get ahead, kind of picking and choosing my spots with a changeup, and then later in the game, kind of relying on the slider, using the fastball to both sides.”
He ran out of gas in the seventh and gave up a run on two more singles, including a two-out RBI single by Andy Pages before Washington went to his bullpen.
Canning has a 2.04 ERA over his past three games. But Roberts didn’t sound impressed.
“I just think we got so far behind that guys just didn’t put together the at-bats that I think we could have,” he said. “No excuse with that, but I think at that point in time Canning got into a rhythm and we just didn’t take the at-bats that we could have.”
The Angels added three runs in the eighth inning against Dodgers right-hander Michael Petersen and finished the night 6 for 13 with runners in scoring position. They were 20 for 147 (.136) with RISP in the previous 23 games.
“I hope the offense is waking up and able to finish the rest of the season like that,” Washington said. “It would be nice to finish the rest of the season swinging the bats and getting that type of pitching. Canning was outstanding tonight. Good fastball, moving around, good off-speed stuff. He was just outstanding.”
Staff writer Jeff Fletcher contributed to this story.
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Dave Roberts talks about Bobby Miller's performance and the #Dodgers loss. pic.twitter.com/lWa4ZbVezu
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Bobby Miller discusses his performance tonight. pic.twitter.com/ydmCxJIcoZ
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