ATLANTA — Bobby Miller announced his presence with authority.
The hard-throwing right-hander hit 100.1 mph with his first big league pitch. More importantly for the Dodgers, Miller did something the more experienced members of the starting rotation have found difficult to do recently — he went five innings.
Miller allowed just one run on four hits and got the win in his major league debut as the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-1, Tuesday night.
With injuries depleting their starting rotation, the Dodgers resorted to an internship program, starting rookies Gavin Stone (two career starts) and Miller (one) in back-to-back games against the Braves — the team with the best record in the National League when this series started.
The Dodgers won both games and Miller was only their third starter in the past nine games to complete five innings.
Miller gave up a two-out RBI double to Austin Riley in the first inning and didn’t get his first big-league strikeout until the ninth batter he faced, getting outfielder Sam Hilliard to swing over the top of a curveball. But he stranded runners at third base in the third and fourth innings and retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced, four on strikeouts.
In his fourth start of the season for Triple-A Oklahoma City last week, Miller threw 43 four-seam fastballs, averaged 99.5 mph with them, hit 100 mph 19 times and 101 three times. That translated to the majors — he averaged 99.5 mph on 21 four-seamers. Nineteen of them rounded up to 100 or 101 mph.
Braves starter Stephen Strider is one of the hardest-throwing starting pitchers in the majors, but Miller threw 24 pitches faster than Strider’s fastest on Tuesday (99.2 mph).
The Braves seemed ready for the heat. They swung and missed at a Miller fastball just twice. Instead, Dodgers catcher Will Smith called for 25 sliders, 23 change-ups and 11 curveballs. Those pitches produced seven swing-and-misses.
And the Dodgers did what they could to calm Miller’s nerves by scoring four times in the first two innings.
Mookie Betts led off the game with a double and moved to third on a groundout. With the infield in — surprisingly early — Will Smith slapped an RBI single past diving shortstop Orlando Arcia.
In the second, Jason Heyward jumped on a high fastball from Strider for a solo home run to start the inning.
With two outs, first baseman Matt Olson booted a ground ball to extend the inning. The Dodgers took advantage. Walks loaded the bases for Smith who drove in two more runs with a double (the second of his three hits in the game).
Miller’s 76 pitches in his start last week were his season-high in four starts for OKC. He matched that through four innings against the Braves then went back out and retired the side in order in the fifth, striking out two, and finished the night at 95 pitches.
The Dodgers’ bullpen followed Miller with four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, and the Dodgers broke it open with an RBI single from Max Muncy in the seventh and a three-run home run by J.D. Martinez in the ninth.
