![\"Mason](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-padres-0411-033.jpg\")
Mason Miller #22 of the San Diego Padres celebrates during the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Friday, April 10, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nWhy are Padres players wearing brown shirts that depict the Grim Reaper clutching a baseball?<\/p>\n
Because teammate Mason Miller was known as \u201cThe Reaper\u201d during his Oakland A\u2019s tenure, and the closer with a triple-digit fastball has become even more dominant with the Padres.<\/p>\n
Miller, 27, appreciates the team spirit.<\/p>\n
But he wouldn\u2019t be caught dead or alive wearing the shirt he inspired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let everyone else wear it,\u201d he said when the season began. \u201cIt seems a little conceited for me to wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reaper schtick, as it turned out, wasn\u2019t overkill.<\/p>\n
At a rate seldom seen since men were first paid to chuck baseballs, the big leaguers who face Miller are dead men walking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re watching greatness out there on the mound every day,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said before Saturday\u2019s game against the Rockies at Petco Park.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s A+ fastball and A+ slider led A.J. Preller to trade the Padres\u2019 top prospect, shortstop Leo De Vries, for the 6-foot-3 closer last summer.<\/p>\n
In his second game after the trade, Miller gave up a two-run home run to the Diamondbacks in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Somehow, Diamondbacks righty Lourdes Gurriel squared up a 103.9 mph fastball \u2014 the fastest pitch ever hit for a home run in the Statcast era.<\/p>\n
Miller responded by improving his accuracy and becoming less predictable to hitters.<\/p>\n
The results are staggering.<\/p>\n
Miller allowed no runs over the 21 1\/3 innings after Gurriel\u2019s home run\u00a0 \u2026 plus the 2 2\/\u20193 playoff innings against the Cubs in which he struck out all eight hitters \u2026 and the four innings in the World Baseball Classic last month \u2026 and the 7 1\/3 frames to begin this season entering Saturday.<\/p>\n
Thirty-five innings. Zero runs.<\/p>\n
Even more impressive than the scoreless streak is the degree to which Miller is stamping out even the\u00a0threat\u00a0of allowing a run.<\/p>\n
Across the 35 innings, he has 79 strikeouts with five hits allowed. He has walked just 10 batters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely on a little bit of a heater now,\u201d said Stammen, adhering to the ballplayer creed of understating a hot streak, lest one jinx it.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s pitching as good as anybody can pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason Miller #22 of the San Diego Padres celebrates during the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Friday, April 10, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Miller has found a higher level this year.<\/p>\n
Forcing hitters to respect his accuracy, he has issued just one walk in the 7 1\/3 innings against Padres opponents after allowing no walks in the four WBC innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with how I\u2019ve come out of the gate, just dominating the strike zone and putting hitters in counts where they\u2019re gonna chase, too,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Miller said he is \u201cbreaking home plate into thirds\u201d visually. He aims at either the plate\u2019s inner third or outer third, rather than trying to shave the corners.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy stuff\u2019s good enough that I can be there and get outs,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to go, \u2018I have to put this on the outside corner, or it\u2019s going to get hit 400 feet.\u2019 I can say, \u2018OK, break the plate into thirds.\u2019 \u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Nor can hitters assume the fastball is coming.<\/p>\n
He has thrown the slider more often \u2014 48 times \u2014 and the only hit he has allowed was off a fastball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always talk about his velocity,\u201d Stammen said,\u00a0 \u201cbut his slider is really what the separator is.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s never surprising when the Padres employ a terrific closer.<\/p>\n
The alums include Hall of Famers in Goose Gossage and Trevor Hoffman, a Cy Young winner in Mark Davis and a formidable finisher in Heath Bell, the closer of the 2006 club that stands as the franchise\u2019s most recent NL West champion.<\/p>\n
For surreal delight created by a Padres closer, we must respect Rod Beck saving all 20 save tries in 2023, while doing voodoo with a fastball that ranged from 84 to 86 mph.<\/p>\n
Such is Miller\u2019s astounding streak that Carlos Hernandez, the main catcher on the World Series Padres of 1998, said he desperately wishes he could catch Miller.<\/p>\n
Even in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to know what it\u2019s like to catch 104 miles per hour,\u201d said Hernandez, 58, a longtime color analyst on Padres Spanish-language broadcasts.<\/p>\n
When hitters stepped in to face Hoffman, Hernandez liked to play mind games with them. He would tell them Hoffman\u2019s killer changeup would be coming during the at-bat.<\/p>\n
And if he caught Miller, what would he tell hitters?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d just laugh,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd say, \u2018Good luck.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why are Padres players wearing brown shirts that depict the Grim Reaper clutching a baseball? Because teammate Mason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-263307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}