SEATTLE -- In a tight spot against a good team, Corbin Burnes showed the way a great athlete sees the whole field.

Unfortunately, it was also the way he got knocked out.

Burnes and the Brewers were optimistic that the right-hander wouldn’t have to miss his next start after abruptly exiting during the sixth inning of the Brewers’ 7-3 win over the Mariners on Monday at T-Mobile Park. Burnes has a left pectoral strain, which was described as “minor” by both him and manager Craig Counsell after the game. But considering the team is only days removed from a similarly minor issue that became something more significant for Burnes’ co-ace, Brandon Woodruff, everyone will be especially careful in the coming days.

“It’s something that I think is very minor that could have gotten worse if I had kept going,” Burnes said. “There hasn't been any talk of pushing back [the next start] or anything.”

The Brewers won for the fourth time in five days with the victory Monday, and ensured that they’d finish at least .500 on the 10-game, three-city western road trip by continuing to have the balanced offense and solid pitching that has carried Milwaukee to a 12-5 start. They tallied 10 hits, but only third baseman Brian Anderson (3-for-5, team-best 15th RBI) had a multihit night. No hitter had multiple RBIs.

But the postgame handshakes came under a cloud of concern for Burnes -- the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2021 that followed it up in '22 by becoming the first pitcher in Brewers history to lead his league in strikeouts. When he took the mound Monday in Seattle, Burnes was coming off his best start by far this season, an eight-inning, three-hit, no-run victory at Arizona in which Burnes didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight.

Back on the mound five days later, Burnes was hurt during a highlight-reel play in the fourth as he faced a two-on, two-out jam with a 3-1 lead. With Jarred Kelenic at the plate and veteran Eugenio Suárez at second base, Burnes took the pitch timer all the way down before wheeling around and catching Suárez way off the bag. 

The rundown went from Burnes, to third baseman Brian Anderson, to shortstop Willy Adames, and then back to Burnes, who tagged out Suárez near third base to end the threat. 

“That just shows a pitcher who has to make a big pitch there, but he still sees what’s going on around him," Counsell said. “Credit to Corbin right there. Long hold, taking the pitch clock down, and he had that in his mind the whole time. That was a great baseball play.”

Said Anderson: “That surprised me. It was a great play, holding and holding and then the pickoff. It definitely caught me off-guard, that’s for sure.” 

The idea came to Burnes in the moment. 

“Kelenic got in the box quick so first thought in my mind was long hold; hitters don't want to stay in the box for that long and use a timeout,” Burnes said. “The more time started ticking down the more I started thinking, ‘Hey, this could be something we can take advantage of here.’”

It worked. 

“I think I caught everyone in the stadium off guard,” Burnes said.

Unfortunately, Burnes over-stretched while applying the tag. He didn’t notice it at first, but didn’t feel quite right in the fifth. As Burnes warmed up for the sixth, he says he knew something was amiss. 

Burnes walked No. 9 hitter J.P. Crawford to lead off the inning. After Julio Rodríguez followed with a flyout, Burnes signaled to the dugout for a member of the athletic training staff. 

“The first hitter, Crawford, I had zero command and then clearly the velo started to drop,” Burnes said. “It’s just one of those things where it began to cramp up and tighten up and it was affecting me mechanically.” 

The Brewers are off to a terrific start this season despite some significant early tests to their starting pitching depth. Aaron Ashby, a talented left-hander who was supposed to bounce between the bullpen and rotation as essentially Milwaukee’s sixth starter, suffered a shoulder injury in January and is on the injured list. Adrian Houser, another swingman, is on the IL with a groin injury. And then the Brewers lost Woodruff to a shoulder injury earlier on this road trip. Initially the Brewers hoped Woodruff would miss the minimum two weeks, but further tests revealed a strain that will require a longer shutdown.

So, they will monitor Burnes closely. 

“There's no cause for concern,” Burnes said. “It's one of those things where you stretch something out more than you should. Day or two, get some treatment on it, it'll be fine.”