By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com
What they saw on Saturday night is a glimpse of what Andrew Miller is capable of building upon.
Miller turned in his finest out of the season in beating the Nationals, 11-0, at Nationals Park.
The 6-foot-6 left-hander tossed seven scoreless innings, while scattering two hits and striking out seven. His innings and strikeout totals matched career highs.
Now that makes two straight starts that Miller has gone at least six innings, and he's won both contests.
A former first-round pick, Miller is regarded as a lefty with tremendous upside. His raw ability can be special, and shades of that showed when he improved to 3-2 on the season.
One of the marquee names in the offseason trade with Detroit, Miller will turn 23 on May 21. If he keeps taking steps forward, the Marlins can feel confident that they have a special front-line starter.
This ability will eventually come in steps, and completing seven innings marked progress for a lefty whom many believed should have been optioned to the Minor Leagues a few weeks ago to polish up some rough edges.
Still, to be a front-of-the-rotation performer, Miller knows he has to work at least seven innings.
"That's obviously the goal," he said. "I want to go out there and save the bullpen. You don't want to use them too early."
Early on Saturday, going deep appeared to be a struggle. He used 28 pitches to get out of the first inning. But he settled, and ended up tossing a career-high 103. What was encouraging was the fact he walked just one, and allowed two hits. He had a stretch of retiring 14 straight batters until Felipe Lopez's one-out single in the sixth inning.
"I threw a lot of pitches per hitter, but keeping the hits down and keeping the walks down allowed me to go deeper into the game," said Miller, who more effectively integrated his changeup than in past starts. "I hope that I can mix that and be more aggressive with hitters, and I will be even better."
Even in the first inning, where he threw a lot of pitches, catcher Matt Treanor felt the lefty was going to be fine.
"In the first inning, I didn't even feel like it was going to be an issue," Treanor said. "I know he threw a lot of pitches, but I felt like he was still going to get on track, and pitch well. Every inning after that, he got better and better, and he was on cruise control."
Manager Fredi Gonzalez cautions that Miller remains a work in progress.
"We have to be patient with him," Gonzalez said.
If Saturday was what Miller is capable of throwing on a regular basis, then some patience may end up being worth the wait.
