Miller eager to celebrate 'full-circle' homecoming in Pittsburgh

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BOSTON -- Mason Miller was about 10 years old, sitting behind the home dugout at PNC Park, when Pittsburgh starter Zach Duke flipped him a baseball after a Pirates win. He remembers it vividly.

A few years later, Miller spent his birthday with some buddies, sitting in the right-center-field bleachers. Between innings, Andrew McCutchen threw a ball into the stands. Miller leapt and made the catch.

After his junior season at Waynesburg University, just south of Pittsburgh, Miller went to a Pirates game with a girl named Jordan whom he’d just started dating. They sat together up the third-base line. He doesn’t remember any specifics from that game. For good reason: The date was going well. He and Jordan are now married.

“There are just a lot of memories,” Miller said. “I’ve sat everywhere in that stadium. It’s such a gorgeous park.”

At some point this week, if the Padres have a lead in the ninth inning, Miller might get the chance to create a new memory at the ballpark he’s been to dozens of times: He’ll get to take the mound as a big leaguer.

“It would be,” Miller said, “a really full-circle kind of moment.”

Miller, who grew up in nearby Bethel Park, said he had to limit ticket requests to family this week. But that won’t stop dozens of friends and acquaintances from flocking to the ballpark. He estimated that he would have a cheering section of 50-60 in attendance this week when the Padres face the Pirates in a three-game series at PNC Park beginning tonight.

This is Miller’s fourth season in the big leagues. But he spent the first 2 1/2 of those with the A’s, and the schedule never lined up for a homecoming. Miller was on the IL in 2023 when the A’s visited Pittsburgh. They were slated to return last September, but Miller was traded to the Padres ahead of the July 31 Trade Deadline.

He’s been waiting a long time for this one. A lot of people have.

“Just getting a chance to pitch in front of people that have never seen me pitch in the big leagues, it’ll be really special for them,” Miller said. “And I’m looking forward to sharing that with them.”

Miller, of course, is now one of the sport’s most dominant closers. He boasts perhaps the game’s best fastball, which routinely touches triple digits on the radar. He pairs it with a wipeout slider -- the perfect complement to that fastball. Now, he’s adding a changeup to his repertoire with a bit more regularity. He used it to punch out Masataka Yoshida in a big spot on Saturday.

Add it all up, and Miller is darn near impossible to hit. He’s struck out the last nine hitters he’s faced, including all six over the weekend in Boston. As a Padre, he’s punched out 64 of the 107 batters he’s faced, including eight of nine in the postseason. That’s a patently absurd 60% clip. No pitcher has ever come close to a mark like that over a full season with any reasonable sample size.

But growing up in the Pittsburgh area, Miller wasn’t a megaprospect. He went undrafted out of high school and spent four seasons pitching for the Division III Waynesburg Yellow Jackets, about 45 minutes south of Pittsburgh.

It was at Waynesburg where Miller started to morph into the pitcher he’s become today. He arrived on campus with his 6-foot-5 frame but weighed only about 150 pounds. He had issues gaining weight. As a freshman, he posted a 7.03 ERA. As a sophomore, it was 7.16. Around that time, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Miller found the right diet and strength program to combat his condition. He bulked up significantly. His fastball ticked up from 87 mph into the high 90s. Afforded an extra season of eligibility because of COVID, he transferred to Gardner-Webb and excelled there. He was drafted by the A’s in the third round.

And so began Miller’s journey as a professional -- a journey that tonight will take him back to the ballpark where his love of baseball was fostered.

As a kid, Miller made the 25-30 minute drive from Bethel Park with his family. When he got older, he’d take the Pittsburgh light rail alongside his buddies. He spent that one summer night in college -- after he’d finally pieced it all together on the mound, posting a 1.86 ERA in 11 starts as a junior -- alongside Jordan. It’s one of his favorite memories from the early part of their relationship.

“Her love for baseball has grown, obviously,” Miller said. “But that was just cool, going and experiencing that with her. It was something I loved, something that was so exciting for me. But it was just exciting getting to be with her, going to a game with her. Having that to reflect on is really cool.”

Miller pitched on the PNC Park mound once before, as a high schooler in 2015. Afterward, he shared a picture of himself on Instagram.

He captioned it: "Dreams come true."

He had no idea.