Chase Burns: Debut with a Promising Start, but with Ups and Downs
The young pitcher Chase Burns, in his highly anticipated debut in the Major Leagues, has shown impressive potential, although with some challenges along the way. Burns, who was the second overall pick in last July’s amateur draft, became the third pitcher since 1961 to record his first six outs via strikeout in his first MLB game.
Despite this explosive start, the game presented ups and downs for the Reds’ pitcher.
In his game against the Yankees, Burns allowed three runs in five innings. Although he managed to strike out his first five batters, a single by Jazz Chisholm Jr. broke the streak. Burns finished with six hits and eight strikeouts, becoming the seventh Reds’ starter to achieve that number of strikeouts in his first start.
According to historical records, only Al Leiter of the Yankees and Wade Davis of Tampa Bay achieved the feat of striking out the first six batters in the expansion era.
Burns struck out seven of the first ten batters, allowing only one hit until Ben Rice hit a slider that traveled 413 feet.
Aaron Judge followed with a hit, and after retiring two batters, Chisholm Jr. hit a single and Anthony Volpe scored with a triple.
Burns averaged 98.1 mph with his 48 fastballs, reaching a maximum of 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. The New York team batted 1 for 9 with six strikeouts in their first encounter against Burns, and 5 for 9 in the second round, including a triple and a home run.
Of his 81 pitches, 53 were strikes. His first pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham. Burns managed to strike out Judge with a 91.1 mph slider for the third out of the first inning.
Burns started with strikes against 11 of 21 batters and induced 12 swings and misses. He is the fifth player selected in the first round of last year’s draft to reach the majors.
