All arrows once again point to Corbin Burnes.
The right-hander made his third straight big start Saturday afternoon, mostly silencing the mighty Toronto Blue Jays when the Milwaukee Brewers evened the teams’ interleague series with a 5-4 win at American Family Field.
Burnes pitched 7⅔ innings, the deepest start by a Brewers pitcher this season, and struck out nine while getting a rare early reprieve from the offense.
“He’s been great in the vast majority of his starts,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s a plug. It’s the length in the game. It’s zeros.
“When you have a guy like that, you know when his turn comes you’re going to put in a lot of effort and you’re going to go deep into a game and you’re going to get zeros.”
Burnes, whose start was the longest since pitching eight innings on Sept. 11 as he teamed with Josh Hader for the Brewers’ second no-hitter in Cleveland, sees his role on the staff a little more generally.
“I’m just going to go out there and do my best to fulfill my role on the team and give these guys good innings and try to get a win,” he said.
Score box: Brewers 5, Blue Jays 4
Plus:Have a glove, you’ll travel: Brewers newcomer Jonathan Davis can run them over in center field
Andrew McCutchen and Mike Brosseau each homered, and the Brewers scored all five of their runs in the first three innings.
After being dominated by Alek Manoah in Friday’s 9-4 loss, the Brewers’ bats fared much better against left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.
It all started with Willy Adames receiving a 12-pitch walk with two batters in the first and then scoring on back-to-back two-out singles by Luis Urías and Tyrone Taylor.
Milwaukee loaded the bases in the first but Kikuchi threw 40 pitches in the process, helping set up what came next.
Keston Hiura reached and advanced to second on a throwing error by Bo Bichette to lead off Milwaukee’s second and then, with two out, Adames singled to center field to score it.
On the next pitch, McCutchen hit a two-run homer just over the fence down the left field line to double the Brewers’ lead to 4–0.
A leadoff home run by Brosseau in the third made it 5-0 and ended Kikuchi’s day.
“You see a guy like that as a track and you feel like he’s going to move on. And he did,” Counsell said. “Where he got us into the game was very important and affects tomorrow’s game.
“That’s what big starters do: They get so involved in the game that it affects the next two days’ games.”
Burnes went through the first four innings without issue, allowing a single and a walk while hitting a batter, before giving up his first run on Matt Chapman’s leadoff home run in the fifth.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with a double and came in to score two batters later, but Burnes limited the damage to two runs.
A grounded double play erased a one-out walk in the sixth and a 1-2-3 in the seventh left Burnes with 93 pitches.
Counsell rolled with Burnes to start the eighth and after recording the first two outs, he allowed a home run to Bichette’s center that left Devin Williams to start warming up in earnest.
After Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed up with an infield hit, Burnes finished and walked out to a standing ovation from the crowd of 34,768.
“At first we were able to get in the zone enough to get some outs and then for the second time in order they helped me with a lot more swings,” Burnes said. “We were kind of all over the place with everything, then really two lazy 0-0 pitches that were hit for home runs.
“Other than that, it was pretty good overall.”
Burnes was asked how much he wanted to complete eight innings.
“As bad as I want to make it to nine,” he said. “Every time, that’s my goal when I go out. They helped me for the second time in order, they started taking a lot more swings to help keep the pitch count down.”
“But my goal is to get to nine every time.”
What if Burnes had retired Bichette with his pitch count around 100? Would Counsell have given him a chance in Milwaukee’s first complete game since Adrian Houser last season?
Counsell did not respond to the hypothetical question. But Burnes did it, his way.
“I mean, I’m not going to tell anyone that I’m ready to get out of the game,” he said. “So, we’ll leave it at that.”
Burnes (6-4) allowed five hits, three runs and two walks while striking out nine on 105 pitches to give him his fourth straight game of eight or more and regained the major league lead with 119.
Of the Brewers’ 11 starts of seven innings or more this season, Burnes has recorded seven.
Williams struck out the only batter he faced to strand Guerrero and take his scoreless streak to 18 (17⅓ innings). Hader continued to work out a jam in the ninth.
Matt Chapman doubled and Gurriel singled with two outs to make it 5-4, but Hader retired Gabriel Moreno on a weak grounder to end the game and record his 22nd save.
Chi Chi Gonzalez kicks off the series finale on Sunday, after which the Brewers will have firm plans for the reinsertion of Brandon Woodruff into the rotation as they embark on a two-city, six-game road trip to Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh.
“It will be nice,” Burnes said. “Woody has been feeling good. His early rehabs have been electric. So it will be good to see him back.”
Reference-www.jsonline.com