As the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft, Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns certainly has All-Star potential.
On Sunday, he’ll get a good look at what it takes to be one of the league’s top pitchers when he faces Zack Wheeler and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Burns (0-1, 13.50 ERA) had a productive major league debut on June 24, when he allowed three runs in five innings against the New York Yankees, striking out eight without a walk. However, his luck turned upside down against the Red Sox in Boston last Monday, as he allowed seven runs — five earned — while recording only one out in a lopsided 13-6 defeat.
The Reds believe that Burns was tipping pitches in his first career road start and they hope to have that issue ironed out before the Wake Forest product takes the mound at Citizens Bank Park in Sunday’s series rubber game.
“Hopefully (we got it figured out),” Cincinnati pitching coach Derek Johnson said. “It could be a little more challenging based on what it is. But we’ll give it an old college try and find out.”
The 22-year-old Burns would love to one day be as consistent as the 35-year-old Wheeler (8-3, 2.27), who is coming off a sensational month of June. The reigning National League Cy Young Award runner-up allowed two earned runs in 31 innings last month, good for a 0.58 ERA.
Wheeler put an exclamation point on his sparkling June by striking out 10 without a walk over eight scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over the San Diego Padres last Monday.
“I don’t think I’ve had a pitcher that, whether I’m coaching or managing, that has had a month like that,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Maybe I have, but he was pretty much dominant the whole month. … Just efficient, strike-throwing ability, command, velocity. He had it all.”
Wheeler, who is 2-2 with a 2.61 ERA in eight career starts against Cincinnati, will likely be named to the NL All-Star team on Sunday. He has a good chance to be named the league’s starting pitcher, although his teammate Ranger Suarez is another contender for that honor.
Suarez limited Cincinnati to one run over five innings in Saturday’s 5-1 victory for Philadelphia, as the lefty improved his ERA to 1.99.
“It’s great competition,” Suarez said through an interpreter in reference to the Phillies’ stable of quality starting pitchers. “I think that’s what drives us to be better. We look at each other. We watch each other. We just try to learn and be the best we can.”
The Reds allowed three home runs in the game — a solo shot by Edmundo Sosa and two-run bombs by Alec Bohm and Kyle Schwarber. However, given the quality of the Philadelphia lineup, Reds manager Terry Francona had a hard time being upset with Cincinnati starter Nick Lodolo, who allowed three runs (on the homers by Sosa and Bohm) over six otherwise solid innings.
“Some of that’s that lineup,” Francona said. “They’re pretty good, man.”
Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz has recorded two hits in each of the first two games of the series. However, he hasn’t homered since June 23.
–Field Level Media
