One afternoon last season, Rochester Red Wings play-by-play announcer Josh Whetzel interviewed Drew Millas for his pregame show the day after he had legged out a triple and he asked Millas if he thought he was the fastest catcher in all of baseball.
Between innings of the Red Wings’ 10-1 blowout over Lehigh Valley in the home opener Tuesday at sunny but frigid Innovative Field, Whetzel recalled that Millas considered the question, then without reservation said yeah, he thought he was.
“Yeah, I am,” Millas said, doubling down when asked again following the Wings’ first victory in a home opener since 2016. “I know that. I mean, I train in the offseason. No other catcher trains on the track in the offseason but me so I'm pretty confident in it.”
You won’t get an argument from anyone who was in attendance as they watched the 6-foot-1, 204-pound Millas lash triples in his first two at bats before taking a nice, leisurely stroll after his third at bat when he hit one over the fence in right for a two-run homer.
It was quite a day for the 27-year-old as he also walked in the seventh and finished with five RBI, this after a rough spring when he managed just one hit in 22 plate appearances with the parent Washington Nationals down in Florida, then went 1-for-8 in the first two regular-season games for Rochester last weekend in Buffalo.
Those struggles disappeared on a day when the Wings pummeled Iron Pigs starter Nabil Crismatt for six runs on eight hits and two walks in his four innings of work.
“I mean, the spring was what it was,” said Millas. “It's hard when you're playing in the end of games and your routines are just off in the spring, which is pretty normal. I never really have great springs, so I wasn't really too worried about it coming in, but it was good to kind of get some feedback on all the work I put in in the offseason from today.”
A glance at Millas’ baseball reference page shows that counting his time at Missouri State University, summer league baseball, all levels in the minor leagues, and 31 major league games with Washington, Millas had only 13 triples in 2,311 plate appearances, though three of those came last season for the Red Wings. So, tripling in back-to-back at bats Tuesday was quite a thing.
“I wasn't really trying to do too much, it just kind of happened,” he said. “I don't think I've ever had two triples in my life, so that was pretty cool, but I wasn't really thinking about it, to be honest. I was just running.”
Key moments in the game
The Wings jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first when Robert Hassel singled and stole second, Juan Yepez walked, and both men scored on Millas’ first triple as his shot to right got past a diving Gabriel Roncones.
In the third, Hassel led off with a fly ball to left-center that was lost in the sun by center fielder Justin Crawford for a double and then Brady House ripped a triple to left-center to make it 3-0. Franchy Cordero lined a single up the middle to score House, and Millas’ second triple to right chased home Cordero to make it 5-0.
In the fourth, Nasim Nunez walked, moved to second on a throwing error by Crawford, and raced home on a single by House; in the fifth, Franchy Cordero singled and Millas followed with his two-run homer; and in the seventh, four walks and a single by Hassel increased the Wings’ lead to 10-1.
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