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Miller expects to make next start after 'weird' injury

Denis Poroy / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Shelby Miller said he expects to make his next start despite leaving Saturday's outing against the San Diego Padres after scraping his right hand on the ground while following through on a pitch.

Miller, who entered the contest with a 8.18 ERA, lost his command after cutting up both knuckles of his index finger when he scraped his right hand on the mound on a pitch to Andrew Cashner in the bottom of the second. After walking Cashner and issuing another free pass to Jon Jay moments later, the 25-year-old was lifted in favor of Matt Buschmann.

"Never seen that," manager Chip Hale told reporters after his club's 5-3 loss in extra innings. "Strange. He banged his hand right on the mound. The bottom line is he was locating the ball very well with a high velocity and all of a sudden he banged his finger, the velocity dropped and the location went away."

Miller's early departure at Chase Field compounded an already rough start to his tenure in Arizona, as the former first-round pick now owns an 8.53 ERA with a 1.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three outings, allowing five home runs in just 12 2/3 innings thus far.

"It was kind of weird," Miller said. "When I was out there I was kind of trying to fix myself while I was doing it and had to figure out way not to do that again. That's obviously not what you want."

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