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SAN DIEGO – When he was called up to the big leagues the last two seasons, Drew Millas found himself walking through the Nationals' clubhouse introducing himself to a good number of unfamiliar faces. When he arrived at Petco Park on Tuesday afternoon, the 27-year-old catcher assumed it would be more of the same, until he looked around the room and realized he already knew almost every single player on the current roster.
“I came in and expected to do the usual, like: ‘Hey, I’m Drew. I’m Drew. I’m Drew. I'm Drew,’” he said. “I was just like: ‘Hey, what’s up? Good to see you!’ It’s a good thing to have familiar faces here, and it makes me really comfortable.”
With so many young players who have come through Triple-A Rochester in recent years on the Nationals’ major league roster now, Millas is plenty comfortable in these surroundings. It’s now up to him to take advantage of whatever playing opportunities he gets to convince the organization he should stick around for more than a week or two.
Summoned from Rochester when Keibert Ruiz was placed on the 10-day injured list with a head contusion after getting struck by a foul ball in the dugout Monday night, Millas is now the clear backup to Riley Adams, who takes over as the team’s No. 1 catcher. Manager Davey Martinez said he expects Adams to start the bulk of the games behind the plate, and sure enough he’s back in there for this afternoon’s series finale against the Padres only hours after catching Tuesday’s game.
Millas will probably get one start this weekend in Anaheim, at which point he’ll hope to show the strides he’s made both at the plate and behind it. He opened his season at Triple-A with a disappointing .229/.287/.344 slash line in his first 35 games. In 17 games since, he’s put together a much better .288/.348/.441 slash line, getting back to what he believes he does best.
“I mean, I know I could hit the ball,” he said. “I’ve always been able to just touch it, you know what I mean? And touching it sometimes just isn’t good enough. So kind of just understanding that I do have natural bat-to-ball skills, and that I can swing a little bit harder to do some more damage in certain scenarios. Obviously, there’s a time and place with two strikes where you might need to shorten up. But as far as mindset goes, that was kind of the main gist of it.”
* Derek Law made his third rehab appearance earlier today, and the veteran reliever continues to search for positive results as he attempts to return from forearm inflammation that has sidelined him since the end of spring training.
Law, who made his first two outings for Double-A Harrisburg, moved up to Rochester this week and started today’s game against Syracuse. Facing a lineup that included experienced Mets hitters Luisangel Acuña, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez, he gave up three runs on four hits (including a homer by Pablo Reyes) during his one inning of work.
Law has now been scored upon in each of his three outings, giving up two homers in the process.
