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Though no major market team was involved, die-hard baseball fans, fantasy baseballers and gamblers alike all had their eyes on Milwaukee on Monday night. The pitching matchup was off-the-charts tasty. Corbin Burnes got the ball for the Brewers and rookie sensation Trevor Rogers was going for the Marlins.
For five innings, it lived up to the billing. The Marlins were clinging to a 1-0 lead. They would then break the game open against Burnes in the sixth and coast to an 8-0 win.
Burnes struck out nine batters against zero walks, meaning he is still chasing history. That gives him 49 strikeouts and zero walks this season. The record for strikeouts to open a season without issuing a free pass is 51, which was set by Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen in 2017. If we limited the scope to starting pitchers, Burnes is already the record-holder here.
Burnes also came into the game carrying a 0.37 ERA and opponents were hitting just .098 with a .171 slugging percentage against him. The Marlins muddled those figures up a bit. He ended up leaving after five-plus innings with eight hits, five runs (four earned) allowed. His ERA has climbed to 1.53. His WHIP is up to 0.55. Those are still amazing, obviously, but they reflect the damage the Marlins did to him in the sixth when he was unable to record an out.
On the other end, Rogers was brilliant.
Granted, this is a Brewers lineup — without Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain — that hasn’t been very good to date, but Rogers has been great all year. He’s now 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 38 strikeouts against 10 walks in 28 innings. The southpaw was the Marlins’ first-round pick out of high school in 2017 and was a pretty touted prospect heading into this year. He’s been making good on his promise so far and outshined a guy who had been the best non-deGrom starter in baseball before Monday.
The Marlins move to 10-12 this season, but that’s only 1 1/2 games out in the NL East. The Brewers are 13-9 and still in first place in the NL Central by two games, by virtue of the second-place Cardinals losing.