Burnes puts it all together for Sky Sox
Through two Pacific Coast League starts, Corbin Burnes experienced some expected ups and downs. In his third outing, he displayed how good he can be on the mound at the Minors' top level and even showed off at the plate in his first win of the year.Milwaukee's No. 2 prospect
Through two Pacific Coast League starts, Corbin Burnes experienced some expected ups and downs. In his third outing, he displayed how good he can be on the mound at the Minors' top level and even showed off at the plate in his first win of the year.
Milwaukee's No. 2 prospect scattered three hits and a walk while striking out nine over 6 1/3 innings and added his first hit of the season as the Triple-A Colorado Springs blanked New Orleans, 3-0.
Gameday box score
"I felt great," Burnes said. "First off, we had a great plan coming into it. We'd seen these guys a couple times already, so we knew most of the hitters. We had a good plan and went out there and executed. Hats off to [catcher Christian Bethancourt] behind the plate calling a great game. He was throwing it down and I was throwing them where he wanted. It was definitely a good day and good to get some momentum going."
Burnes allowed one run on five hits over six innings in his Triple-A debut against Omaha on April 7, but one week later, the right-hander surrendered four runs (three earned) on seven hits over five frames opposite Round Rock. With the lessons from his first two starts in hand, Burnes excelled in the Big Easy.
Two of the hits baseball's No. 69 overall prospect allowed came in the first inning when Magneuris Sierra reached on an infield single with one out and swiped second before moving to third on a single by Cristhian Adames. Burnes stranded both by fanning Jonathan Rodriguez and catching Rafael Ortega looking.
"Those guys that got the hits the first couple innings, they hit some good pitches and happened to leg them out," Burnes said. "I was able to put that behind me and keep attacking hitters like we wanted to do. I was fortunate enough to get out of that inning with nothing happening and then just got in a groove from there."
Burnes whiffed two more in the second, one in the third, one in the fifth and one in the sixth. The nine strikeouts were the 23-year-old's most since last May 21 when he tallied 10 for Class A Advanced Carolina at Winston-Salem at the expense of hitters whose advanced approaches have stood out already this year.
"A lot of these guys are older, veteran hitters," he said of his first look at Triple-A lineups. "They've been around the game for a while. Some of them have some MLB experience. They're coming to the plate with a plan. They know what they're going to do from the very first pitch to the last pitch in certain counts, looking for certain pitches. It's a battle the whole way, each AB, 1-9 in the order. You definitely can't take hitters off, can't take pitches off."
Burnes opened the seventh by getting Rodriguez to fly out before giving way to the bullpen. The California native threw 56 of his 82 pitches for strikes.
"One of the focuses for me tonight was getting ahead in the count, first-pitch strikes, getting ahead of hitters," he said. "For the most part, I was able to do that tonight, and that helped keep the pitch count down."
The game was scoreless until the seventh when Colorado Springs broke through, with Burnes helping his own effort. After Shane Opitz and Gabriel Noriega led off the inning with singles to center, Burnes went to the plate wanting to advance them with a sacrifice bunt. His manager thought otherwise.
"[Rick Sweet] our manager comes to the plate and goes, 'Hey, if they crash (the infield), go ahead and pull it back and slap it up the middle,'" the pitcher said. "I got up there, and [Baby Cakes second baseman Johnny Giavotella] broke for first base and I was like, 'Oh, this is my chance.' I was able to slap it in there and get that first knock."
The single up the middle loaded the bases, and back at the top of the order, Johnny Davis grounded into a run-scoring force play to bring home the first Sky Sox run. Two batters later, with sixth-ranked Brett Phillips at the plate, Baby Cakes reliever Chris Mazza threw a wild pitch to bring home the second run of the inning.
Catcher Christian Bethancourt led off the eighth with a homer to right for some insurance on the way to his starter's first win.
"I'll just take the confidence with me," Burnes said. "It was good to get out there and have my best stuff, have a good four-pitch mix. I was able to attack hitters and get ahead in counts. That's stuff that I'm going to carry over to the next outing. I've got some things here and there I'm going to try to clean up, but as far as getting ahead of hitters and that confidence, I'm going to carry that with me."
Nick Ramirez pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings in relief of Burnes, walking one and striking out one, and Erik Davis notched the last out of the ninth.
Tyler Maun is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @TylerMaun.
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