3 numbers behind Burnes' comeback season

Even though baseball was shut down, Keston Hiura saw the strides that right-hander Corbin Burnes was making toward a bounce-back season.

After Burnes pitched into the seventh inning without allowing an earned run in the Brewers’ 7-1 win over the Indians on Friday, Hiura spoke of facing Burnes in live at-bats in Arizona while Major League Baseball was paused at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don't think anyone got a hit off of him,” Hiura said. “He's one of those pitchers who just never lets you feel comfortable at the plate or in the box. He's either 95-97 [mph] going into you or 93 going away from you. It's not a comfortable at-bat. …

“Any time he’s on the mound, it's something you want to tune in to and see what he can do.”

Here are some of the key numbers behind Burnes’ strong showing so far:

4.93: That’s the number of hits Burnes has allowed per nine innings so far in 2020, best in the Major Leagues for a qualifying pitcher. National League Cy Young Award candidate Trevor Bauer of the Reds is second at 5.11 hits-per-nine-innings, and American League Cy Young Award candidate Shane Bieber of the Indians (the Brewers are scheduled to face him Sunday) is after that at 5.13.

One: It follows that while allowing fewer hits, Burnes is allowing fewer home runs. But the difference has been dramatic; Burnes has yielded only one homer in his first 38 1/3 innings of 2020, compared to 17 home runs in 49 innings a year ago. Keeping the ball in the yard has helped Burnes lower his ERA from 8.82 in '19 to 2.35 so far this season.

25.4 percent: Burnes’ cutter usage is way, way up from last year, when he threw eight cutters total. Now it’s his second most used pitch besides his high-spin fastball, representing more than a quarter of Burnes’ arsenal and pushing down his slider use to 10.2 percent (from 31 percent last year). As a result, Burnes has more pitches moving in different directions, and hitters are not able to focus on one side of the plate. And like Burnes’ slider, his cutter has elite movement -- nearly two inches of horizontal break in on the hands of a right-handed batter, which is 101 percent better than average, according to Statcast. Burnes’ slider, meanwhile, breaks 3.4 inches away from a righty, or 79 percent better than average.

“He's into a nice mix of pitches and he has confidence in what he's doing,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “Most importantly is probably just making the hitter defend enough, and when you combine that with his plus velocity, he's making it really tough on guys. He's in a good spot.”

Childhood Cancer Awareness Day
For the fifth consecutive year, MLB and its clubs raised awareness for childhood cancer during all games on Saturday for a special league-wide day in home ballparks. MLB’s “Childhood Cancer Awareness Day,” held during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), combined a visual and ceremonial demonstration of support for the cause with outreach to local hospitals treating young patients in their communities. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States and Canada.

The Brewers joined all on-field personnel, including players, coaches and umpires around baseball in wearing gold ribbon decals and wristbands during Saturday's game against the Indians. Clubs also featured ceremonial activities in ballparks. Club activities included pregame ceremonies, cardboard cutouts of pediatric patients in stands at ballparks, virtual patient first pitches, virtual player hospital visits and more.

Childhood cancer awareness efforts in previous seasons have included special pediatric cancer awareness batting-practice T-shirts, online campaigns to empower fans to hold fundraisers for pediatric cancer research and donations to local children’s hospitals. MLB and its clubs have supported the fight against cancer through a variety of initiatives for many years. As Stand Up To Cancer’s founding donor, Major League Baseball has pledged more than $50 million to SU2C’s collaborative cancer research programs, providing invaluable support. Launched in 2013, the work of the Stand Up To Cancer/St. Baldrick’s Foundation Pediatric Cancer Dream Team has helped to develop new immunotherapy approaches and contributed to the development of two new treatments for difficult-to-treat pediatric leukemias that have been approved by the FDA. MLB has recognized SU2C at its jewel events since the '09 World Series.

Gyorko settles in at first base
Jedd Gyorko is proving you don’t have to be 6-foot-7 Richie Sexson to get a chance to play first base for the Brewers. He’s in line to start regularly at the position after the Brewers designated Justin Smoak for assignment on Thursday, though Jace Peterson got the nod at first base on Saturday.

Gyorko is listed as 5-foot-10 in the Brewers’ media guide, putting him among the most vertically-challenged players ever to man first for Milwaukee. Cesar Izturis, who played one inning of one game in 2012 at the position, was 5-foot-9. And Roberto Peña, the utility man for the Brewers in 1970 and ’71, played in 57 games and started 28 at first base while checking in at 5-foot-8.

Gyorko, who signed with the Brewers over the winter to platoon at third base with Eric Sogard, and back up at second base and shortstop, didn’t get many reps at first base in Spring Training.

“The way things looked, it seemed like I was about sixth or seventh on the depth chart,” Gyorko said. “But that seems like that’s pretty much how any season works, you never know what’s going to happen. I’ve played over there. I played over there a good bit in St. Louis, so it’s not like it was completely foreign.”

And in case you are curious, here are the three tallest players to man first base for the Brewers: Pete Koegel and Corey Hart at 6-foot-6, and Sexson, the two-time Brewers All-Star, at 6-foot-7.

Last call
• Corey Knebel is part of the Brewers’ taxi squad in Cleveland, and he’s ready to come off the 10-day injured list for a strained hamstring. But with a number of position players banged-up lately, including Ryan Braun, who started Saturday for the first time since his back flared up on Sunday, and Avisaíl García, who remained sidelined by a stiff hamstring, the Brewers preferred to keep an extra position player for at least one more day.

• With off-days on the schedule Monday and Thursday, the Brewers will skip Josh Lindblom’s next start and keep everyone else in line. Lindblom has a 6.46 ERA through seven starts.

“With Josh there’s nothing to fix necessarily,” Counsell said. “It’s really just executing pitches. He has to get in the strike zone a little bit more, be a little bit more aggressive in counts. It’s not necessarily mechanical. It’s not bullpen time that ne needs.”