Mason Miller snaps historic scoreless streak as Padres closer allows his first run since August 2025

Miller allowed two Cubs runners to score Monday night, his first in 34 ⅔ innings

Mason Miller is human after all. The San Diego Padres closer allowed his first runs since Aug. 6 in his team's win over the Chicago Cubs (SD 9, CHC 7) Monday night at Petco Park. Miller's scoreless streak came to an end at 34 ⅔ innings, the longest such streak in franchise history and the eighth longest by a reliever since at least 1961.

"Padres win, that's what matters at the end of the day," Miller said after the game (via MLB.com). "Had to stare down the barrel. Bases loaded, no outs. Got back to it and got out of there."

Miller entered with a four-run lead, so not a save situation, and the ninth inning started with some controversy. Matt Shaw legged out an infield single on a ball that third baseman Ty France picked up after it rolled just foul, but the umpires called it fair. Replays show the ball was indeed foul when France picked it up. Fair/foul calls on the infield are not reviewable though, so the fair call stood.

"We trust that our players are watching the ball and Ty's picking it up at the right time," Padres manager Craig Stammen said (via MLB.com). "Thought it was still moving and then obviously we saw the replay on the (scoreboard). From that angle, it made it look like it was a foul ball."

After Shaw's leadoff infield single, Dansby Swanson followed with a line drive single to left and Pete Crow-Armstrong snuck a ground ball single through the right side to load the bases with no outs. Nico Hoerner's ground ball to second base was hit too slowly to turn a 4-6-3 double play, and scored Chicago's first run. A wild pitch scored their second.

Miller recovered to get Michael Busch to ground out to first and Alex Bregman to strike out to end the game. Here is a messy ninth inning that finally gave Miller an ERA:

"The beauty of it is you get to start another one," Miller said about his scoreless streak ending (via MLB.com). "Kind of reflecting -- I guess now is a little too soon -- but probably tonight and tomorrow, reflect on it and come in tomorrow ready to start a new one."  

Those two runs on Monday give Miller a 1.26 ERA on the season. He's struck out 28 batters and walked only two in 14 ⅓ innings, and opponents have six singles against him. That's it. No doubles or triples (or homers). Despite being a reliever, Miller is tied for 12th among all pitchers in WAR with Shota Imanaga and Cristopher Sánchez, among others.

Monday's win improved the Padres to 19-9 this season. They're a half-game behind the Atlanta Braves and NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers for baseball's best record. Here is more on Miller's scoreless streak and his overall excellence this season.

Longest reliever scoreless streaks

Miller broke Cla Meredith's franchise record scoreless streak Saturday night, when the Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first game of the Mexico City Series (SD 6, ARI 4). His streak is eighth among relievers since 1961:

Gregg Olson, Orioles

41

Aug. 4, 1989 to May 4, 1990

Brad Ziegler, Athletics

39

May 31 to Aug. 14, 2008

Ryan Pressly, Astros

39

Aug. 15, 2018 to May 20, 2019

Josh Hader, Brewers

38

Aug. 1, 2022 to June 5, 2022

Bob Moose, Pirates

38

Sept. 5, 1975 to May 24, 1976

Craig Kimbrel, Braves

37 ⅔

June 14 to Sept. 8, 2011

J.C. Romero, Twins

36

June 26 to Sept. 11, 2004

Mason Miller, Padres

34 ⅔

Aug. 6, 2025 to April 27, 2026

It should be noted that those are regular-season innings only. Miller also threw 2 ⅔ scoreless innings in the Wild Card Series last year, striking out eight of the nine batters he faced. His scoreless streak was really 37 ⅓ innings, which makes it slightly more impressive than it already was.

The all-time record is 59 straight scoreless innings by former Dodgers ace and current Dodgers broadcaster Orel Hershiser from Aug. 30 to Sept. 28, 1988.

Miller's historic dominance in 2026

Believe it or not, Miller is currently in a little bit of a slump. He's struck out only one of the last 13 batters he's faced, dragging his season strikeout rate down to a still-incredible 56.0%. Miller had fanned 27 of the first 37 batters he faced this year, an insane 73.0% strikeout rate. Take an at-bat against Miller this year, and you are more likely to strike out than do anything else.

Miller has thrown 65 innings and 61 ⅔ innings in the last two seasons. Set the minimum to 60 innings, and here are the highest strikeout rates in baseball history (the MLB average is 22.2%):

1. Craig Kimbrel, Braves: 50.2% in 2012
2. Edwin Díaz, Mets: 50.2% in 2022
3. Craig Kimbrel, Red Sox: 49.6% in 2017
4. Josh Hader, Brewers: 47.8% in 2019
5. Josh Hader, Brewers: 46.7% in 2018

Only 36 times in history has a pitcher struck out at least 40% of the batters he faced while throwing at least 60 innings. Even with his current strikeout slump -- "slump" -- Miller has maybe the best chance anyone has ever had to crack the 51% strikeout rate threshold. It's never been done before, not even by a reliever in the relatively small sample of 60 innings.

Miller's 103 mph fastball gets all the attention, but his slider is actually his best and most-used pitch. He's thrown it 54% of the time this season and hitters have missed 72% of their swings against it, a preposterous rate. (The MLB average on sliders is 34%.) When they put the slider in play, Statcast calculates the expected slugging percentage at .067 based on exit velocity. Sheesh.

Basically, Miller is more likely to strike you out than not, and if you do put a ball in play against him, you're not going to drive it with any authority. This is about as dominant as a pitcher has ever been. There is a long way to go in a long season, but Miller is making an early push for the National League Cy Young award.

De Vries tearing up Double-A

The Padres paid a hefty price to acquire Miller at last summer's trade deadline. They sent shortstop Leo De Vries, arguably the best prospect still in the minors, to the Athletics in the six-player swap. De Vries reached Double-A at just 18 last season and is hitting .296/.389/.444 with three homers in 21 Double-A games this year. It is a remarkable performance at that level at that age.

At 15-13, the A's currently sit atop the AL West despite a bullpen that ranks 14th in ERA and 13th in win probability added. The 2026 Athletics would inarguably be a better team with Miller in their bullpen. I suspect they are very happy with the trade though. De Vries has all the markings of a future star. The Padres are no doubt happy too. They're a win-now team with the game's best closer.