Mason Miller’s streak of 37⅓ scoreless innings, which dated to last season, ended last week when he allowed two runs while closing a win for the San Diego Padres over the Chicago Cubs, the report says. The Cubs’ rally began with a 49.5 mph roller down the third-base line that might have been foul, followed by two more hits, a groundout and a wild pitch, and Miller saw his ERA rise from 0.00 to 1.26 and his batting average allowed jump from .071 to .125, per the report.
The report frames Miller as the latest evolution of the flame-throwing reliever, joining a line that includes Dick Radatz, Goose Gossage, Rob Dibble, Billy Wagner, Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman. He works in one-inning bursts with a 101 mph fastball and has dominated since being acquired by the Padres, allowing an .081 batting average since Aug. 6 of last season including two postseason appearances, according to the report.
On the low batting-average-allowed front, the current record listed in the report is .113 by Kirby Yates in 2024 with the Texas Rangers, with a minimum of 50 innings required for consideration. Yates allowed 23 hits in 61⅔ innings and, according to Statcast, posted an expected average allowed of .146 — about seven fewer hits than expected — and finished by allowing four hits in his final 22 innings, the report says.
For strikeout rate, the report notes Aroldis Chapman’s 52.5% mark in 2014 as the standard, with three relievers having topped 50% in a season: Chapman in 2014, Craig Kimbrel in 2012 (50.2%) and Edwin Diaz in 2022 (50.2%). Miller’s arsenal and results are compared in the report: he throws his slider 52.6% of the time and his fastball 40%, with a 73.6% whiff rate on the slider and a 44.6% swing-and-miss rate on the fastball. His overall swing-and-miss rate is listed at 57.8% compared with Chapman’s 45.4%, and the report says he rebounded from a stretch in which he fanned two of 16 batters to record five strikeouts in his past two appearances.
The report also contrasts modern usage with older workloads: Dick Radatz’s 181-inning single-season mark from 1964 is cited as the innings benchmark, with Radatz described as a 6-foot-6 pitcher nicknamed “The Monster” who averaged 138 innings per season during a dominant 1962-64 run. The report concludes by noting Miller will not approach 100 innings, let alone those historical totals, while assessing how his early numbers stack up against all-time relief seasons.
