The Corbin Burnes who took the hill Thursday night at Camden Yards looked nothing like the one Orioles fans have watched all season.
For one, this Burnes had shorter hair.
Perhaps in hopes of shedding a disastrous last outing against the Red Sox, the Orioles ace received a haircut mere hours before first pitch, then toiled through 5 2/3 innings in a 6-0 loss to the Astros. In more ways than one, Burnes bore little resemblance to his All-Star self, allowing six runs, five earned, on eight hits and a pair of walks.
But the 29-year-old hasn’t looked like himself since the month began.
At a time when his team is in desperate need of quality innings, Burnes has seen his ERA rise from 2.47 to a still impressive 3.28 in his last four starts. Thursday’s performance was an improvement over the eight-run clunker he delivered Aug. 16, but it was far less than Baltimore has come to expect from its leading man.
Burnes’ final line, however, does not reflect just how well he began the outing.
Read More
The righty faced the minimum through three innings before encountering his first batch of trouble in the fourth, when second baseman Jose Altuve led off with a walk. Burnes, perhaps fearful of adding to his league-leading total of 33 stolen bases allowed, committed a disengagement violation by throwing over three times, allowing Altuve to reach second. Yordan Álvarez drove in Altuve with a single to right, and three batters later Ben Gamel added another RBI to make it 2-0.
The sixth inning proved even more difficult for Burnes, who allowed runners to reach the corners with two outs. One strike away from escaping the jam, Burnes gave up a full-count RBI single to Gamel, and a parade of Astros singles followed. By the time Burnes exited, it was 6-0.
“Really that Gamel AB is what changed that inning,” Burnes said. “Having him 1-2 there and not being able to get the out or finish the strikeout there led to a big inning.
“Frustrating that the final line shows what it did, but I guess you should take the positive out of it that you were one pitch away from it being another quality start and onto the next one.”
“They didn’t hit that many balls hard against him on the night,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just some ground balls that got through, some ground balls that were just out of reach for double play balls to get him out of the inning. Stuff was good. Just didn’t work out his way.”
At least Baltimore’s bats had Burnes’ back in his previous three outings, scoring a combined 26 runs in those starts. That was not the case against Astros rookie Spencer Arrighetti, who spread three meager hits over six innings.
Gunnar Henderson sparked hope in the first inning, smacking a 112 mph, two-out double, but was stranded at second after a Ryan O’Hearn lineout. A hustle double by Ryan Mountcastle in the second also went to waste, when Jackson Holliday grounded out and Cedric Mullins popped out to end the threat.
Adley Rutschman’s fourth-inning single was the final knock of the night for the O’s, who went hitless off relievers Shawn Dubin and Caleb Ferguson.
“Give Arrighetti credit. That’s a really good arm, and I thought he pitched us extremely tough,” Hyde said. “We did nothing offensively the whole night, only hit a couple balls hard. Tough to win when you only get three hits.”
“When we’re at our best, it’s guys fouling off a lot of pitches, grinding out at-bats, having longer at-bats, working walks, and there’s traffic throughout the game,” O’Hearn said. “I think that’s where we’re at our best. If you’re not doing that, it puts a lot of pressure on the guy when there is somebody with runners in scoring position for the first time all night or whatever to get the job done and come through with that big hit.
“We’ll get there. It’s ebbs and flows, a long season.”
Burnes can hardly be blamed for hitting his first rough patch of the season. But the Orioles, who dropped to 9-11 this month and have lost five of their last seven, need Burnes to be the stopper he was earlier in the year. Baltimore won each of its ace’s first five starts of the season, and four of those came after a loss.
Nor can he be saddled with the burden of picking up innings that are currently wasting away on the injured list. Down an entire rotation’s worth of starters, the Orioles pitching staff has been whittled to a collection of players who were not expected to receive many, if any, big league innings this season.
“I think the way we started off the year is how we think we can play baseball, and we know we can play baseball that way,” Burnes said. “Starts with us on the mound and starts with me. I haven’t done my job last two starts. So it’s going to take me to turn things around and making that one pitch to get out of it that we need. But, yeah, we’ve been in a tough stretch, but we still got a lot of baseball left.”
Burnes likely has five, maybe six starts remaining before the regular season ends and a (hopeful) playoff run begins. There’s a good chance his hair will have grown back a bit by then.
