Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes tied a significant association record by striking out 10 sequential players during Wednesday night’s 10-0 triumph over the Chicago Cubs.
Burnes’ record-tying strikeout came in the lower part of the fifth inning, when Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel whiffed on a 88-mph slider. Third baseman Matt Duffy broke the string on the following pitch by singling to right field on a first-throw fastball.
Each of the 10 of Burnes’ strikeouts came on swinging third strikes. The 26-year-old right-hander fanned the side in the second, third and fourth innings to establish a Brewers group record at nine straight, prior to striking out Schwindel to begin the fifth.
Burnes was in such a zone he didn’t realize he had tied the record.
“I had no idea. When I came in, Shawger said something,” Burnes said, referring to Brewers equipment manager Jason Shawger. “I was like, ‘What did I do? Why are we throwing the ball out of the game?’ I had no clue.”
The 10 strikeouts:
Schwindel: Swinging on a 0-2 slider.
Duffy: Swinging on a 0-2 curve.
Greg Deichmann: Swinging on a 1-2 changeup.
David Bote: Swinging on a 1-2 slider.
Andrew Romine: Swinging on a 0-2 shaper.
Jake Arrieta: Swinging on a 1-2 curve.
Rafael Ortega: Swinging on a 2-2 shaper.
Willson Contreras: Swinging on a 2-2 shaper.
Ian Happ: Swinging on a 2-2 shaper.
Schwindel: Swinging on a 0-2 slider.
Burnes imparts the record to Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola, who pulled the accomplishment against the New York Mets in June, and Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, who set the imprint for the Mets against the San Diego Padres in 1970.
Burnes required only 41 pitches to strike out the 10 hitters, with three of them going down on three pitches and none requiring more than five.
Burnes had a 7-0 lead before he even took the hill after the Brewers scored seven runs in the highest point of the first.
“It makes it really easy to just throw it over the plate,” he said. “Even after scoring seven runs, they came out swinging, so after the first we said instead of leaving it over the middle let’s just go back to our game plan and go to the edges and do what we do best. It worked. Credit goes to Omar [Narvaez]. I think I shook him off once all night.”
Burnes completed the night with a profession-high 15 strikeouts more than eight scoreless innings, the second-most strikeouts in establishment history, behind Ben Sheets’ 18 out of 2004. The Brewers’ overseer of group travel disclosed to Burnes that Sheets had messaged him during the game, kidding that he was getting apprehensive that Burnes planned to break his record.
“That is quite cool he was watching it,” Burnes said.
Burnes additionally coordinates with Mets ace Jacob deGrom for most strikeouts in a game this season (both did it while permitting no strolls), and his 30 swings-and-misses are the second-most in a game get-togethers Angels’ Patrick Sandoval recorded 32 in a June start against Seattle.
“Those first four innings were as good as anyone has pitched in a game — not just this year, but in a long time,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “The swings were … the swings just weren’t good swings. It was a great pitcher at his best.”
Burnes made strikeout history in April when he started the year with 58 strikeouts prior to giving his first walk. That momentarily remained as the untouched record for most strikeouts without a stroll anytime in a season until Gerrit Cole broke it a couple of days after the fact with 61.
It has been an astounding turnaround for Burnes since 2019, when he got done with a 8.82 ERA. He improved to 7-4 with a 2.23 ERA and positions third in the majors in ERA (colleagues Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta are second and fourth), third in strikeouts behind Zack Wheeler and Cole and first in strikeout rate at 36.1%. With only five homers permitted in 121 innings, he additionally leads qualified starters in least grand slam rate.
The enormous change came in the 2019-20 offseason, when Burnes concocted another shaper while fiddling with various holds for his slider. The shaper is presently the pitch he tosses frequently, tossing it over half of the time, assisting with setting up his profound weapons store of crash pitches. He tossed it multiple times on Wednesday, out of 99 all out pitches.
