CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Owen Miller knew exactly what he was looking for.
“I had seen that pitch a couple of times,” Miller said. “I think the first and second pitch was that little slider, cutter.”
Miller indeed got his pitch and deposited it 399 feet into the left-field bleachers for a game-tying home run in the 8th inning Sunday afternoon.
“A lefty like that (Adam Cimber), it was coming in to me so I knew I had to pull my hands in a little bit,” Miller continued. “I knew if I could get that again where I can handle it, I could put a good swing on it.”
His swing was good enough for third homer run of the season and helped propel the Guardians (14-14) to their fourth come-from-behind victory of the season, a 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Progressive Field.
“I know that the wall is big in left. I knew that I hit it well.
The wind has been crazy the last couple days, so I guess you never really know,” Miller said. “Being able to get it up there a little bit I could feel that one was gone.”
Miller is one of five Guardians batting .300 or better and continues to be one of the high points of this young 2022 campaign. His emergence coupled with Franmil Reyes recent hot streak will go a long way towards easing any concerns about the offense in Cleveland that has quietly hit itself to the third-best average in the Majors.
“Our offense kind of thrives off each other. We go hitter to hitter. It was cool to see us come back like that at the end,” Miller said. “We were down by one and I put a good swing on a ball and then Franmil has been swinging it well and we just keep going.”
Reyes’ current heater included another three-hit outing Sunday.
After a forgettable start to the season, Reyes now has 12 hits in his last 23 at-bats including going 9-for-14 against the Jays over the weekend.
“We needed to get him going. We said that when he wasn’t, now that he is we can be a different team,” said manager Terry Francona.
Connor Pilkington made his first career start for the Guardians after being recalled from Triple-A Columbus. He settled in after a rough first inning that yielded two-runs to give the home team a chance late.
“There’s something to be said for a young kid that endures a 36-pitch first inning and then stays out there and competes and reels it back in and ultimately gives us a chance to win,” Francona said. “That was really exciting.”
The moment wasn’t lost on Pilkington, who admittedly was dealing with some first-game jitters.
“I was kind of excited and a little jittery in the first inning. It’s just something I’ve always dreamed of doing since I was a little kid,” he said. “From the second inning on, I just kind of settled in really got comfortable and started locating the ball.”
Pilkington limited a Blue Jays lineup that ranks in the top third of Major League baseball, at one point setting down eight straight batters before the streak was ended by an error by Josh Naylor to start the fourth inning.
He finished his debut tossing 3.2 innings giving up three hits, two earned runs and striking out six.
“My first outing was on Jackie Robinson day and now my first start is on Mother’s Day’s so it was kind of cool going out there and being able to perform,” Pilkington said.
Oscar Mercado provided the go-ahead run two batters after Miller’s solo shot, scoring Reyes on an RBI single to center field.
“If you think back to last year, sometimes guys come here, and it just doesn’t click right away. Then they go home over the winter, and they come back and they appear stronger, even though they might really not be,” Francona said. “You can tell, he (Miller) looks like a different hitter. He really does.”
Miller has now hit to the tune of .352 this season and is a large reason why that Guardians offense ranks third on baseball with a .255 average.
“Last year was definitely a learning experience. I learned a lot of things. When you struggle you look at things,” Miller said. “I looked at a lot of things in the offseason and was able to pinpoint some things.”
The Blue Jays boasted a 10-3 record in one-run games this season when they arrived in Cleveland, but the Guardians have now handed Toronto their second one-run loss of the series.
“When a bunch of guys are hitting like that you can tell we can really frustrate a pitcher,” Miller said.
The Guardians have now won seven of their last nine games while averaging 5.56 runs per game during that span.