SF Giants already have an obvious internal replacement for injured Erik Miller

The SF Giants got some bad news recently with left-handed reliever Erik Miller going on the IL and being diagnosed with a UCL sprain. Thankfully, Joey Lucchesi has stepped up and looks to be an obvious internal replacement.

The optimistic view on Miller is that he could be back in roughly a month which is a positive, but we know elbow injuries to pitchers can be tricky. It is a shame because Miller was having an excellent year and was establishing himself as a key part of San Francisco's bullpen.

SF Giants have obvious internal replacement for injured Erik Miller

In 36 appearances, Miller had a 1.50 ERA in 30 innings pitched. He may have been skirting by with a little bit of good luck, but he was still getting the job done and manager Bob Melvin clearly trusted him as one of his premier arms in the bullpen.

Alas, the Giants are going to have to get by without him for the time being. The Giants called up an old friend in Scott Alexander to give Melvin another left-handed option in the bullpen, but it has been Lucchesi who has impressed stepping into the void left by Miller's absence.

In 10 appearances on the year and 10 innings pitched, Lucchesi has allowed three earned runs while recording 10 strikeouts and giving up two walks. The veteran lefty has seven straight scoreless outings including a great outing on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers as he pitched a scoreless seventh inning and struck out Shohei Ohtani.

He followed that up with a clutch outing on Sunday against the Dodgers as he came into the top of the 10th and recorded three outs without letting the automatic extra innings runner score from second base.

This season has been impressive from Lucchesi because he has been a starter for most of his career. The Giants signed him earlier this year thinking he could be a long reliever, but he is quickly proving that he has what it takes to be a leverage arm that Melvin can rely upon late in games.

It is obviously a small sample size, but if Lucchesi continues to pitch like this the Giants may not have to try and trade for a left-handed reliever at the deadline. That means one less thing for Buster Posey and the front office to worry about as they try and put the team in the best position to win.

We will see how Lucchesi fares going forward in this new role, but if he can continue to pitch the way he has as of late then he will be a more than apt replacement for Miller as he is on the mend.