Lehigh Valley's Hoby Milner Making His Case In The Bullpen

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Phillies Triple-A squad, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, avoided a weekend sweep at the hands of the Indianapolis Indians on Sunday with a 1-0 win in Allentown.

The headline in this one was a dominant performance by winning pitcher Phil Klein. He pitched eight shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 11.

But also key in the victory was a scoreless ninth inning by left-handed reliever Hoby Milner, who picked up the first Triple-A save of his career.

"I was hoping to get the opportunity and thank God I did," Milner tells KYW Newsradio.

Listen to the entire interview with Lehigh Valley's Hoby Milner:

Milner is an interesting prospect in the Phils system. A seventh round draft pick of the Phils out of the University of Texas in 2012, he was a starter at first and had some success, winning 22 games in 2013 and 2014 between Single-A Clearwater and Double-A Reading. But then Milner was moved to the bullpen and about a year ago the Phils approached him about switching from a more standard over the top delivery to his current sidearm style.

"It didn't click right away," Milner says. "It took a little while and I went through multiple mechanical changes and finally found one I liked."

That has led to the 25-year-old Milner pitching outstanding baseball. With Reading, Milner was 5-3 with five saves and had a 1.84 ERA in 38 appearances. In 49 innings for the Fightin Phils, he allowed 41 hits and struck out 54 with just a dozen walks.

Sunday was his fifth appearance for the Iron Pigs. In Triple-A action he has a 3.24 ERA, with 11 strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings.

Milner says he is a fan of both of the big changes. First, he prefers relieving to starting.

"Starting, you only get to pitch once every five days, maybe six, and I prefer to go out there almost every day with a chance to pitch," Milner says.

And he says the move to throwing sidearm has improved the quality of his four pitches (fastball, curve ball, cutter and change-up).

"I have way more deception than I did when I was over the top," Milner says. "I was pretty good hitting for most righties. Now I've got more movement, I've got more run on the ball, more sink on the ball depending on what I do with it. My breaking ball is way better than is used to be. All those combined make for a lot better pitcher."

Milner says he's savoring getting the chance to pitch at Triple-A and trying not to focus on what the next step up the ladder would mean - a chance to pitch in Philadelphia.

"I try not to think about it as much as I can," Milner says. "I just go out there and try and pitch every day. It is cool though to be at this level. I've been waiting to get to this level for a long time."

Milner and the Iron Pigs host Pawtucket tonight.