SF Giants’ Erik Miller’ old pitch is giving batters new fits

SAN FRANCISCO — Erik Miller hadn’t thrown his sinker in about seven years when he took the mound at Oracle Park for his first offseason bullpen. Given how long the pitch had been dormant, he had no expectations for how the pitch would play.

He needed to throw just one to create shock and awe.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be great. We had the Trackman set up at Oracle. I threw the very first one. I looked back at the analysts. … Their jaws both dropped,” Miller said. “Eyes wide open. Like, ‘Holy [expletive], that was legit. The movement on that was unreal for that pitch.’ As soon as I threw the first one, I was like, ‘We might be working with something here.’ ”

“There’s certain guys that when you add pitches, it takes a long time,” said pitching coach J.P. Martinez. “Sometimes, when you put a pitch in a guy’s hand, it’s just clear from the first or second throw or in the first ‘pen that it’s a pitch they’ll be able to use. That was the case with his sinker.”

Miller, the lone lefty in the Giants’ bullpen, has brought back an old pitch for his sophomore season. It’s already giving left-handed hitters a new challenge. He’s only thrown a couple, but with its combination of velocity and movement, it’s already one of the best in the game.

Martinez approached Miller about playing around with a sinker while playing catch during the offseason. Martinez saw Miller artificially raising his arm slot last season to get additional vertical movement on his four-seam fastball, so tossing around the sinker would help Miller get behind his four-seamer more and generate additional vertical movement. The unintended result was another way to neutralize lefties.

“I said, ‘Hey, if you throw your four-seam from the same slot as the changeup, we could probably put a two-seam in your hand and they’ll separate,’” Martinez recalled. “The first one he ever threw had like 20 inches of (horizontal movement). He threw it down-and-away to a lefty, and it came back middle. That’s a pitch that you could steal a strike on a lefty with, or eventually, it’s going to bore in on them and it’s going to give you more room for your changeup.”

On Monday, Miller struck out Yordan Alvarez, one of baseball’s best hitters, with a sinker that clocked in at 99 mph and generated nearly 20 inches of horizontal movement. Miller is currently averaging 18.0 inches of horizontal break on his sinker; for context, the Minnesota Twins’ Michael Tonkin generated the most horizontal break with his sinker at 18.8 inches. The sinker generates so much movement that Miller aims his sights at the right-handed batter’s box.

“We wanted something that could really dominate lefties, and it felt like that was the right pitch,” Martinez said. “Anytime you get a same-side sinker that moves that much and it’s that hard, it’s going to be a good pitch.”

Added backup catcher Sam Huff: “It’s very heavy, very quick. It’s like a bowling ball coming at you that you have to hit somehow. It’s not easy to hit — but it’s easy to catch and I’m happy I get to catch it.”

The sinker enables Miller to become more of an east-west pitcher who’s capable of covering both sides of the plate. Miller’s sinker and changeup, another excellent offering in its own right, move into left-handed hitters. The slider, by contrast, moves away from lefties. The task of hitting Miller is all the more difficult because Miller’s sinker “mirrors” his slider, meaning both pitches are nearly indistinguishable coming towards the plate until they inevitably break one way or the other. He’s only thrown two sliders this year over his four outings, but that’s been due more to matchups. If Miller wants to go upstairs, he can call upon the four-seamer.