No relief from Burnes’ struggles
Right-hander now 1-5 with 9.00 ERA after ugly outing
After a four-start trial in the rotation didn’t go as planned for Corbin Burnes, there was an easy and obvious fallback plan: Move him to the bullpen, where he enjoyed great sucEntering cess as a rookie in 2018.
But if anything has been learned in the three-plus months since, it’s that the right-hander isn’t able to consistently get hitters out as a reliever, either.
The latest example came Sunday, when Burnes turned in one of his worst outings in a forgettable season.
a tie game in the seventh, he allowed a double, single, double and single before he was pulled in favor of Matt Albers.
All four runners came in to score, and the Milwaukee Brewers went on to a disheartening 8-3 loss to a San
Francisco team that is in last place in the National League West yet won four of the six games the two teams played this season.
There was plenty of blame to spread around in the bullpen in the series, with Burnes the biggest culprit.
He gave up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria to account for two of the eight runs surrendered by Milwaukee relievers Friday in a 10-7, 10-inning loss capped by a Buster Posey grand slam off Albers.
The Brewers won Saturday’s game, 5-4, thanks to Ben Gamel’s walk-off single, but it never would have gotten to that point had Jeremy Jeffress been able to slam the door in the top of the ninth.
Then came Sunday’s ugliness, which undercut a second straight solid start by Jhoulys Chacín.
“I think we’ve pitched well there, at times,” said manager Craig Counsell, whose bullpen’s collective earned run average spiked to 4.65. That ranks eighth with the unit having pitched a National League-leading 381 innings.
“We ask a lot of these guys, and they’ve delivered for the most part. We’ve run into a little stretch post-break and I’d say a little bit before the break but these are our guys. They’re going to get outs for us. I’m confident in that.
“We’re just going through a little rough patch right now.”
When asked specifically about Burnes, Counsell acknowledged his case is different.
“We have to find an answer there,” he said. “It’s not working. The stuff is there, but at some point we’re losing execution,
Giants starting pitcher Tyler Beede hits an RBI single during the seventh inning Sunday at Miller Park.
we’re making mistakes, we’re getting ahead in the count and making mistakes.
“We have to address things with Corbin. He’s just not doing well enough right now.”
One of three youngsters who broke spring training in the rotation along with Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta, Burnes has by far had the most difficulty.
In his third stint with the Brewers – Counsell said a return trip to Class AAA San Antonio would be discussed – he is 1-5 with a 9.00 earned run average and WHIP of 1.87 after 30 appearances.
He’s also allowed 16 homers, one off the team lead.
But his 67 strikeouts in 46 innings show Burnes unquestionably has enough stuff to succeed at the majorleague level.
His performance last season would seem to indicate that as well. Despite no previous professional experience as a reliever, Burnes was moved to bullpen duty in the midst of his minor-league season and then promoted to the Brewers for the first time in early July.
He recorded a two-inning save in his debut in Miami, then went on to serve as a critical piece in one of baseball’s best bullpens with a 7-0 record, 2.61 ERA and WHIP of 1.00 in 30 appearances.
That experience and level of success would figure to work in Burnes’ favor. Instead, the Brewers are scratching their heads trying to figure out how best to get him back on track.
“There are signals for us that his stuff is even better this year,” Counsell said. “His velocity is up, his strikeouts are up, so it’s puzzling.”
Burnes points to his inability lately to put batters away with his slider, and it indeed proved to be his undoing Sunday when all the madness began.
Ahead of Donovan Solano in the count, 0-2, Burnes had a 99-mph fastball and then a slider fouled off before leaving another slider out over the plate that Solano laced to center.
Pitcher Tyler Beede singled next, Brandon Belt singled and then Stephen Vogt doubled. Just like that, the Giants were up, 4-2, and any momentum that remained from Christian Yelich’s sixthinning homer was long gone.
“It’s right there,” Burnes said. “We’re getting the guys in the counts we want to; we’re just not putting them away. The numbers are good with the slider as far as weak contact, swings and misses.
“We’re getting guys into 0-2 counts to put them away with sliders and they’re either fouling them off and getting a better pitch to hit or they’re putting the slider in play. It’s something we’ve definitely got to get back to, is getting the finish back on the slider.
“We had it going good there for 2-3 weeks before the all-star break and then these last two outings I just haven’t been able to put guys away.”