Erik Miller was about to go out and play catch Monday afternoon when life-changing information flashed across his TV screen.
The San Francisco Giants were trading him to the Boston Red Sox for Marcelo Mayer.
“It definitely wasn’t expected,” the 6-foot-5 left-hander said of the trade. “It wasn’t really much of a heads up, but that’s kind of how it is with some of these things. You don’t get a big heads-up. But yeah, I mean, super excited, though, when I saw that (on TV).”
Less than 24 hours later, Miller landed in Boston (around 11:30 Tuesday morning), and headed to his new home ballpark, where the Red Sox opened a series against the American League Central-leading Chicago White Sox.
Out in the sun-soaked bullpen, Miller’s new relief-mates gave him a rundown on his new team. Their intel proved correct almost immediately, when the Red Sox lineup tallied six runs in a nine-batter first inning that featured Caleb Durbin’s first career grand slam, immediately followed by a solo shot from Jarren Duran. By game’s end, the Boston bats smacked four homers, 15 hits and earned a 14-2 win.
“Greg (Weissert) and (Justin) Slaten in the bullpen told me that the boys were bangin’, and they weren’t lying,” Miller said with a chuckle. “They kind of told me, and right off the bat, obviously, grand slam. It was kind of like, they looked over at me and were like, ‘Hey, man, we told you so.’
“So it’s a bad day to be the other team’s pitchers. That’s what they said, and they weren’t wrong.”
Miller took over for Weissert in the sixth inning. It took him four pitches to get an inning-ending strikeout-looking, and strand a Chicago White Sox runner on second.
“I think it was good, kind of a good way to get the feet wet,” Miller said of his brief Red Sox debut. “(I’m) tired. Didn’t sleep a lot last night, a very early flight, but all good. … It’s four pitches. I think I could manage on a little sleep.”
His work done, Miller instinctively turned right to leave the mound, then had to course-correct. The Giants’ home dugout is on the third-base line, but his new home dugout is on the first.
“My natural reaction after I got the strikeout was to walk over to the other side, just like at Oracle,” he said with a smile. “So I kind of had to like, revert back to the left.”
Tuesday wasn’t Miller’s first game at Fenway. He pitched a scoreless first inning as an opener, and a 1-2-3 seventh inning the following day when the Giants came to Boston for a May 2024 series.
But it’s different when a sold-out crowd of 37,669 is rooting for you, not against you.
“When you have the Red Sox across your chest, that definitely feels a little bit different,” he said. “I was a little nervous, but it wasn’t like anything anything too crazy. Like I said, I’m kind of just happy to get a good one out of the way, get a good first impression and kind of keep it rolling from here.”