Corbin Burnes looks to turn in his third straight dominant performance at Progressive Field when the visiting Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Guardians play the rubber match of their three-game series on Sunday.
Burnes’ last trip to Cleveland was on Sept. 11, 2021, and it was one for the record books. The 2021 National League Cy Young Award recipient struck out 14 batters over eight strong innings before Josh Hader shut the door to complete a combined no-hitter.
“I’ve had a bunch of games over my career that have been good, but obviously that one’s going to stand out just because of the no-hitter,” Burnes told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Obviously, a lot different team and I won’t have the other long-haired guy to close out the game, but it’ll be cool to be back.”
Burnes sports a 2-0 record with a 0.00 ERA in two career starts versus the Guardians. He has allowed one unearned run on three hits with 21 strikeouts and three walks in 14 innings against Cleveland.
Burnes (5-5, 3.96 ERA), however, is coming off a disastrous performance in his last trip to the mound.
He permitted a career-high-tying seven runs on eight hits in five innings of a 9-1 shellacking by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday. That result came on the heels of Burnes recording four consecutive quality starts.
Burnes would be wise to pitch carefully to Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez. Kwan is batting .343 (12-for-35) during his eight-game hitting streak, while Ramirez is batting .400 (10-for-25) during his six-game hitting streak.
Ramirez had two hits and scored a run while Kwan had one of each in Cleveland’s 4-2 victory over Milwaukee on Saturday. The Guardians have won five of their last six games.
David Fry atoned for a miscue in the field by delivering a go-ahead RBI single in the sixth inning on Saturday.
“All the guys (helped put it behind me). (Josh Naylor) was like, ‘Erase it.’ Everyone else said to stay aggressive, it happens to everybody,” Fry told Bally Sports Cleveland.
The Guardians will send right-hander Aaron Civale (2-2, 2.67) to the mound to start Sunday’s series finale.
Civale settled for a no-decision on Tuesday against the Oakland Athletics despite allowing two runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings.
He is 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA in two career starts against the Brewers.
William Contreras had an RBI single in the third inning on Saturday. He is batting .310 (13-for-42) over his last 12 games.
Christian Yelich has hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games. He had one of Milwaukee’s four hits on Saturday and scored both runs.
Unfortunately for the Brewers, they struck out 11 times, went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.
“We, unfortunately, didn’t do a good job at creating activity,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. “(Yelich) did a good job getting on base a bunch and that got us a couple runs, but not a lot of activity.”
–Field Level Media
