One metro-east major leaguer collects his first career hit off another
It’s been an eventful week for former Belleville East multi-sport standout Drew Millas, who last week was promoted to the major leagues as a late-season call-up for the Washington Nationals.
One of Millas’s milestones involved another big league prospect from the metro-east and a former college teammate.
Pinch hitting in the bottom of the seventh for Nationals’ starting catcher Riley Adams, and batting from the left side of the plate, Millas sliced a two-strike fastball through the opposite side of the infield for his first major league hit.
The ball bounced past Miami Marlins’ third baseman Jake Burger, a native of St. Louis and a former teammate of Millas’s at Missouri State University.
On the mound for Miami to deliver the pitch that created the milestone moment was Geoff Hartlieb, a 2012 graduate of Highland High School.
Hartlieb also was a September call-up and was making his season debut. The 6-foot, 5-inch right-hander was selected out of Lindenwood University the 29th round of the 2016 MLB draft out by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He spent the entirety of the 2019 and 2020 seasons in the big leagues before being picked up on waivers by the New York in July of 2021.
Hartlieb spent the next two years in the minor league systems of the Mets, Boston Red Sox and Marlins before making it back to a major league mound Saturday in relief of Marlins’ starter Johnny Cueto. He lasted three innings, allowing zero runs and only the single to Millas.
Millas later grounded out to first base in the ninth inning and Miami won the game 11-5.
Millas got his first major league start on Sunday, catching and batting eighth for the Nationals. He picked up another single in the seventh inning off Miami starter Sandy Alcantara, but his team fell again, 6-4.
The Nationals had an off day Monday, but Millas is now 2-for-6 at the plate without a strikeout or walk. He’s still looking for his first extra base hit and RBI.
Apart from Saturday’s coincidences, Millas’s big-league climb has had a heavy metro-east influence.
His grandfather, Larry Patton Sr. was a long-time coach at Belleville East. He passed away on July 29, less than two weeks before his grandson got “the call” to Washington. Millas has referenced Patton’s influence numerous times on social media.
Meanwhile, Millas’s hitting coach in triple-A Rochester was Brian Daubach, aka the “Belleville Basher,” was a standout at Belleville West before embarking on his own eight-year major league career.