Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s been a minute since Bobby Miller took the mound at Chavez Ravine. On Tuesday afternoon, he was back at it… sort of.
In a big step in his rehab from a shoulder inflammation issue that’s had him on the IL for over a month, Miller faced live hitters in a simulated game Tuesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium before the game against the Diamondbacks.
The plan was for Miller to throw three innings worth of simulated at-bats. It’s one more step on the way back to taking the mound at Chavez Ravine for real. You’ll recall that the last time he was there, he was awesome. On March 29th of this year, Miller went six scoreless against the Cardinals, striking out eleven along the way as the Dodgers went on to beat St. Louis 6-3 in the fourth regular season game of the year. Then, a couple of rough outings on the road in Chicago and Minnesota showed that something was wrong with the flamethrowing 25-year-old.
“With Bobby, with the inflamed shoulder, I don’t know how long that’s going to be,” manager Dave Roberts said at the time. “I think for us, there’s a little smoke, there’s a long way to go, so we want to kind of nip it early. I think after the last start, he just wasn’t recovering right.”
And now here we are, nearly six weeks later. Luckily, Miller’s absence has not been felt that acutely, mostly because of the way that Gavin Stone has stepped up and Doc has managed to paper over the hole left by Miller with a mixture of spot starts and bullpen games. Now, with a healthy Walker Buehler in the rotation and Clayton Kershaw looming in the wings later this summer, the Dodgers are in a pretty good spot. They won’t be rushing their prized righty onto the active roster until he’s absolutely ready. There’s still a ways to go, but he’s getting there. The sim game went 51 pitches without incident. Next step, according to Dave Roberts, will be a rehab start at Rancho Cucamonga presumably this weekend or early next week.
