‘Forgotten’ Miley just keeps plugging along

There is a lot of local and national buzz about the stable
of young pitching arms GM Kevin Towers and the Arizona
Diamondbacks have put together.

And there should be; the Diamondbacks are loaded with
young pitching talent like Trevor Bauer, Tyler Skaggs,
Patrick Corbin and Archie Bradley.

But the D-backs have another hurler, who like the others,
was a high draft pick, and doesn’t get talked about much.
His name is Wade Miley.

After three appearances out of the Arizona bullpen, the
25-year-old lefty made his first start of the 2012
season
Monday night, allowing just two hits during six scoreless
innings of work in Arizona’s 9-5 win over the Philadelphia
Phillies at Chase Field.

“I just tried to throw as many fastballs as I can,” Miley
said Monday. “If it’s working, stick with it. [Miguel
Montero] did a great job of seeing what was going on. I
didn’t shake him one time all night, it was all Miggy, and
we were on the same page all night.”

The Diamondbacks’ offense staked Miley to a comfortable 6-
0 lead before he took the mound for the third inning — a
nice luxury for a starting pitcher to have.

“Any time you get a lead like that early in a ball game,
you just kind of make your pitches and get the offense
back on the field as fast as possible,” he said.

And Miley has been “making his pitches” with great
regularity. In his last seven starts dating back to last
season, Miley is 5-1 with a sterling 2.85 ERA.

“He was ahead in the count,” manager Kirk Gibson said.
“When you get ahead in the count, you get earlier swings
and you can throw balls on the edges. He hit his spots.
He did a really good job of that.”

Miley retired 18 of the 21 batters he faced, and threw a
first-pitch strike to 14 of those hitters.

Arizona Sports’ Craig Grialou contributed to this
report

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