Burnes' 30 K's, no walks 'says everything'

MILWAUKEE -- So this is what it looks like when the Brewers give Corbin Burnes some run support.

After scoring one measly run in the right-hander’s first two starts, the Brewers doubled that total just five batters into Wednesday’s 7-0 win over the Cubs, then they kept pouring it on with help from Burnes himself. He delivered the first two RBIs of his career with a sixth-inning single, then watched the bullpen finish Milwaukee's third straight series victory -- two of which have come at archrival Chicago’s expense.

“You don’t need much -- especially when Corbin’s pitching,” said Brewers third baseman Travis Shaw, who homered to continue his own hot start to the season. “When we got two in the first, it felt like the game was already over.”

After finishing the shortened 2020 season with a surge, Burnes has video-game numbers through his first three starts of ‘21.

• After striking out 10 batters with no walks and two hits in six scoreless innings against the Cubs, retiring the last 10 men he faced, Burnes is the only pitcher since 1901 to string together three straight outings of at least six innings and two or fewer baserunners.

• Burnes’ 48.4% strikeout rate leads Major League qualifiers. He has a 0.49 ERA and a .067 opponents' average.

• He has 30 strikeouts and no walks, the only pitcher in 120 years of MLB’s modern history to do that through his first three outings.

• If Burnes keeps going, he’ll be in record territory. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, which has records back to 1893, the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright holds the Major League mark for a starting pitcher with 35 strikeouts in 2013 before issuing his first walk. Before Burnes, the only other starter to reach 30 strikeouts without a walk was the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard, who got to 31 in '17. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen holds the overall record; he struck out a remarkable 51 batters in '17 before issuing his first walk.

“Someone just told me the no walks and 30 strikeouts,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s an incredible stat. That stat right there says everything, I think.”

“These guys look foolish up there sometimes,” said Shaw. “And he’s done it every single time through the rotation so far. It’s pretty special to watch.”

And it’s been relentless. Burnes has now pitched in 19 innings this season and has at least one strikeout in all but one of them -- the seventh inning of his season debut, when Burnes lost a no-hit bid against the Twins on Byron Buxton’s one-out home run and the Brewers went to their ‘pen. On Wednesday, Burnes recorded strikeouts with five types of pitches: A changeup, a curveball, a cutter, a slider and a sinker. He threw 81 pitches and only once allowed a runner to second base. That was in the second inning, when Joc Pederson struck out but reached base on a passed ball, then moved to third on Jason Heyward’s one-out double. Burnes stranded the runners.

“He's got amazing stuff,” said Cubs starter and 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta. “He's throwing 96 to 98 [mph] with cut, with sink. He's got a 91 mph changeup and an 86-88 mph slider. I understand that each guy wants to be that guy to break it open, but one guy can't account for all the offense."

For the Brewers, it was a record-setting performance, of sorts. They have tallied eight straight starts of at least five innings with no more than one run allowed, the longest such streak in 53 seasons of franchise history.

Run support came from all corners. Shaw singled home a run in the Brewers’ two-run first inning against Arrieta, then he homered with two outs in the third, giving him multiple RBIs for the fourth time in the first 11 games of his Milwaukee reunion. The Brewers broke open the game with four runs in the sixth, the first two on bases-loaded walks from Cubs reliever Shelby Miller, and the next two on Burnes’ two-run single over second base against left-hander Justin Steele.

Burnes was originally slated to continue pitching in the seventh inning, but with a seven-run lead, the Brewers called it a day. His next scheduled start should be fun. It’s Tuesday in San Diego against the talented Padres.

Of all his eye-popping achievements so far, what is Burnes most proud of?

“We've been able to stay under control,” he said, using the royal "we," as Burnes is wont to do. “That's something when things started to go a little awry last year, we kind of got sped up, started to lose it a little bit. So this year, that's kind of been the main focus, is, 'Hey, early on, find that effort level that we need, find that level of calmness, and go through my routines and my breathing and kind of staying under control.’ Mentally, I've been locked in now for 18 innings.”