Chase Burns made his big league debut against the New York Yankees, striking out the first five batters he faced for Cincinnati.
He is the most recent young pitcher in the NL Central to demonstrate his remarkable abilities.
Naturally, Paul Skenes of Pittsburgh placed third in the National League Cy Young competition during his debut season. More recently, Jacob Misiorowski of Milwaukee defeated Skenes in a head-to-head game on Wednesday after throwing 11 consecutive hitless innings to begin his career. Now that Burns, the No. 2 pick in the previous year’s draft, has made it to the major leagues, Skenes may have some assistance in his own rotation if the Pirates promote Bubba Chandler, MLB Pipeline’s No. 2-ranked prospect.
Following the Chicago Cubs’ periods of dominance in the NL Central, these pitchers have given the division a serious boost. Milwaukee is presently only two games behind the Cubs and has won 22 of its previous 31 games. In its last 21 games, Cincinnati has won 14 of them. For more than a month, even the Pirates in last place have performed better than.500 baseball, and they recently defeated the New York Mets three times in a row with a combined score of 30-4.
The NL Central is the only division with an ERA under 4.00, and four of its teams are at least four games over.500. As long as you’re not a hitter, these young starters, who have joined more seasoned pitchers like Hunter Greene of the Reds and Freddy Peralta of the Brewers, indicate that the division’s future is bright.
SF slump
The Giants lost three straight games to Miami before losing two of three to the dreary Chicago White Sox. Since their major deal for Rafael Devers, San Francisco has gone 4-8 and is now 7 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lead the NL West.
Since coming from the Boston Red Sox, Devers has hit.217.
Trivia time
James Wood of Washington was purposefully walked four times during a game on Sunday, making him the only player to do so since Barry Bonds. However, in a 1990 game, which Hall of Famer drew five intentional walks?
Line of the week
In St. Louis’ 5-0 victory over Cleveland on Friday, Sonny Gray, another NL Central pitcher, was outstanding, tossing a one-hitter with eleven strikeouts. Since 2017, Gray has not tossed a full game, and since 2015, he had not thrown a shutout.
Gray only pitched 89 pitches, faced one hitter over the minimum, and did not have a walk.
Comeback of the week
Before scoring three runs in the eighth, one in the ninth, and one at the top of the tenth to win 8–7, Miami was behind 7–3 against Arizona. Agustin Ramrez gave the Marlins the lead in extra innings with an RBI single, and Dane Myers stole second and third in the ninth before scoring the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly.
Baseball Savant reports that in the bottom of the seventh inning, Arizona’s victory probability reached a peak of 97.4%.
Honorable mention: Baltimore defeated Tampa Bay 22–8 after falling behind 6-0 on the second Friday night. The Orioles became the first club in the National League or American League to win by at least 14 runs after falling behind by six, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Trivia answer
On May 22, 1990, when playing Cincinnati, Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs was purposefully walked five times. That game was won 2-1 by the Cubs in 16 innings.
