Offense picks up Burnes this time
A pair of four-run innings spur comeback
ATLANTA – Corbin Burnes came out of the chute with some of his best stuff ever this season but didn't always receive the best run support from his teammates.
In fact, sometimes the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander got no run support at all. In three of his first six starts, the Brewers were shut out. Among Burnes' first eight starts were five games in which his team scored one run or none at all.
It would be untrue to say things have evened out since then, but the Brewers' hitters picked up Burnes in a big way Friday night after he surrendered four firstinning runs to the Atlanta Braves. A much-improved lineup responded with two four-run outbursts before the fourth inning was done and Milwaukee pulled away to a 9-5 victory at Truist Park.
“It was a really good offensive night,” said manager Craig Counsell, whose team won for the eighth consecutive time on the road to go 20 games over .500 for the first time since late in the 2018 season.
“Corbin didn't have his best night but the offense picked him up. There have been some opposite nights for Corbin this year, so it was great to see the offense pick him up.”
Burnes was unable to get his breaking stuff over for strikes in the first inning, leading to three runs in a span of the first four hitters, including a two-run homer by Austin Riley. The Braves put together five of their nine hits against Burnes, who exited without retiring a batter in the fifth.
"Wasn't much good going on early,” said Burnes, who saw his earned run average jump from 2.12 to 2.46. “I just didn't really find the rhythm early on. They came out swinging the bat. Credit to them for coming out, looking for the pitch tonight.
“I just made too many mistakes early on. It took me a little bit there to get in the rhythm and then kind of settled in there a little bit and then came out for the fifth and just didn't have it again. So, one of those days you wish you don't have. But get past it and move on and
Corbin Burnes got the run support he needed Friday night for the Brewers to overcome his rare rough start.
credit to the offense for picking me up tonight."
Leading that offensive surge were leadoff hitter Kolten Wong (3 for 5, two runs scored), shortstop Willy Adames (2 for 4 including a two-run homer), Avisaíl García, whose three-run homer in the third tied the score, 4-4, and newcomer Eduardo Escobar, who walked twice, homered and scored three runs.
Of picking up Burnes after a rare rough outing (he had been 3-0, 1.99 in four July starts), García said, “He's been pitching great for us. He's our pitcher and sometimes that happens, so we just have to come back for him. It was one of those days. That's baseball; everything can happen. We just have to support him and do everything we can to support him, so that's what we did.
“You just have to keep working. I think it takes a lot of focus. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of responsibility,
you know? You just have to keep playing good baseball and then keep winning. We just have to be consistent as a team. That's what we're doing now and I'm glad that we came back and won the game tonight.”
The Brewers' starting pitching, particularly the Big 3 of Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta, has gotten many well-deserved accolades this season. But the offense has been much better lately, and the bullpen has done a great job of preventing late comebacks by opponents, as Brad Boxberger (two innings), Devin Williams (one) and Brent Suter (one with three strikeouts) did against the Braves.
The defense came through again in the form of a great throw by centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and great tag by Escobar at third base to help Boxberger escape a two-on jam he inherited from Burnes in the fifth. Riley tried to tag and advance from second on a fly to center by Stephen Vogt but Escobar fielded Bradley's throw to the right of the bag and dived back to make the tag for a big double play.
“It was a great throw,” Counsell said. “Let's start with that. It's an incredible throw. But ‘Escy' made a great tag, too. He kind of went to the other side of the runner. He had one choice to tag his back side as he went by and probably got his foot or calf. It was a great play on both ends, and a big play.
“One of the biggest things for me is it starts with our defense. When our defense is good, we become a different team. We're generally really hard to score against or we prevent something really bad from happening, as we did tonight.
“I think we're playing really well, really good all-around baseball since the All-Star break. I thought the White Sox series was a good example. That's one of the series we played really well. Tonight, we came up with a victory in kind of a different way.”