Chase Burns arrived in the big leagues with a flourish, striking out the first five hitters he faced for Cincinnati in his debut against the New York Yankees.
He’s just the latest young pitcher in the NL Central to show his impressive potential.
Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, of course, finished third in the National League Cy Young race as a rookie last year. More recently, Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski threw 11 straight hitless innings to start his career and then beat Skenes in a head-to-head matchup Wednesday. Now Burns, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, has reached the majors, and Skenes could have some help in his own rotation whenever Bubba Chandler — MLB Pipeline’s No. 2-ranked prospect — is promoted to the Pirates.
These pitchers have given the NL Central quite a shot in the arm after the Chicago Cubs have appeared in control of the division at various points. Milwaukee has won 22 of its last 31 and trails the Cubs by just two games now. Cincinnati has won 14 of its last 21. Even the last-place Pirates have played better than .500 baseball for over a month, and they just swept three straight from the New York Mets by a combined score of 30-4.
Four teams in the NL Central are at least four games over .500, and every team has an ERA under 4.00 — the only division that can say that. These young starters, who have joined more established pitchers like Freddy Peralta of the Brewers and Hunter Greene of the Reds, suggest the future is bright in the division — as long as you’re not a hitter.
SF slump
The Giants dropped two of three to the lowly Chicago White Sox immediately after losing three in a row to Miami. San Francisco is now 7 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers and has gone 4-8 since its big trade for Rafael Devers.
Devers has hit .217 since arriving from the Boston Red Sox.
Trivia time
Washington’s James Wood became the first player since Barry Bonds to be intentionally walked four times in a game Sunday. But which Hall of Famer drew five intentional walks in a game in 1990?
Line of the week
Sonny Gray — another NL Central pitcher — was sensational Friday night in St. Louis’ 5-0 win over Cleveland, throwing a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Gray had not thrown a complete game since 2017 and hadn’t thrown a shutout since 2015.
Gray did not have a walk, faced one batter over the minimum and threw only 89 pitches.
Comeback of the week
Miami trailed Arizona 7-3 before scoring three runs in the eighth, one in the ninth and one in the top of the 10th to win 8-7. Dane Myers stole second and third in the ninth before scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly, and Agustín Ramírez put the Marlins ahead in extra innings with an RBI single.
Arizona’s win probability peaked at 97.4% in the bottom of the seventh, according to Baseball Savant.
Honorable mention: Baltimore fell behind 6-0 in the second Friday night before blowing out Tampa Bay 22-8. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Orioles became the first American League or National League team to win by at least 14 runs after trailing by six.
Trivia answer
Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs was intentionally walked five times on May 22, 1990, against Cincinnati. The Cubs won that game 2-1 in 16 innings.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
