This season, we’ve seen the two longest streaks of pitcher’s strikeouts without surrendering a walk and one is still active. In this post, we’ll look a little bit deeper into the less likely of the two streaks – the one that just ended.
Brewers’ 26-year-old righty Corbin Burnes fanned 58 batters without issuing his first walk this season – which gave him the record for most strikeouts without a walk from the start of a season, as well as for the most strikeouts between walks for anywhere within a season. Burnes didn’t walk his first batter until the fifth inning of his sixth 2021 start.
So far this season (through May 14), Burnes has a 1.57 earned run average in six starts. In 34 1/3 innings, he’s surrendered just 21 hits and six earned runs. His efforts have not been rewarded in the W-L columns, however. He has two wins, three losses and one no-decision on the season. The Brewers have been shutout in all three of Burnes’ losses. Through May 13, the Brew Crew had been shutout four times, and they were averaging just 3.66 tallies per game, fifth-lowest in MLB.
Over the course of his streak, Corbin Burnes faced 125 batters and fanned 58 (46.4 percent) of them,
Here’s is a look at Burnes’ streak:
- On April 3, Burnes pitched 6 1/3 innings versus the Twins and gave up just one run on one hit, while fanning 11. (The run came on a Byron Buxton home run in the seventh.) Burnes left trailing 1-0 and the Brewers lost 2-0, getting just one hit off four Twins’ pitchers. (Loss for Burnes.)
- On April 8, Burnes tossed six shutout innings versus the Cardinals, again giving up just one hit, while fanning nine. He left with a 1-0 lead, but the Brewers eventually lost 3-1. (No decision for Burnes.)
- On April 14, Burnes pitched six scoreless frames against the Cubs, giving up just two hits and fanning ten. He left with a 3-0 lead and the Brewers won 7-0, with Burnes getting the win.
- On April 20, Burnes pitched six shutout frames against the Padres (four hits, ten whiffs). He left with a 5-0 lead and got the win as the Brewers prevailed 6-0).
- Burnes had a bit of a hiccup on April 26, giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits versus the Marlins (striking out nine). He took the loss as the Brewers fell 8-0. Burnes went on the IL after the game and didn’t return to the mound until May 13.
- On May 13, Burnes pitched five innings versus the Cardinals, giving up one earned run (and, in the fifth inning, his first walk of the season), while fanning nine. He got the loss as the Brewers fell 2-0.
In Burnes’ streak, he went to three-ball counts on just 16 batters – retired 14 of them, ten on strikeouts (including the only two batters he started at 3-0).
Burnes came into the 2012 season with a career MLB record of 12-6, with a 4.48 earned run average and 3.4 walks (versus 11.8 strikeouts) per nine innings (146 2/3 innings pitched).
–—-A new Streak to Watch —-
The Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, riding a zero-walk streak of his own, has been considerably more fortunate than Burnes. Cole has a still-active, within-a-season, streak of 56 strikeouts since his last walk. The streak began in the second inning of an April 12 game against the Blue Jays. Cole walked the leadoff batter that inning, gave up a single and then fanned the side (for the first three strikeouts of the 56-whiff, walk-free). Since that frame, he has pitched another 38 1/3 innings and fanned 53 more batters without giving up a free pass. Including the April 12 win, Cole has gone 4-1. With one no-decision in his streak. On the season, he is 5-1, 1.37 with 78 strikeouts (three walks) in 52 2/3 innings. We’ll have to see if Cole passes Corbin’s streak in his next start.
Primary Resource: Baseball-Reference.com
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