Mike

Burrows

Burrows struck out three, walked two, and served up two homers in the outing. Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker each took him deep, raising his ERA on the year to 5.77. Only Jameson Taillon has given up more homers than Burrows’ 17 this season. A change of scenery hasn’t helped him take the next step as a pitcher, and he’s a difficult arm to trust in fantasy next time out versus the Royals on the road.

Burrows tossed a scoreless first inning, then surrendered a two-run homer to Endy Rodríguez in the second. He’d strand two more runners before getting out of the frame. Burrows would take a two-run lead into the sixth, but gave up a three-run homer to Oneil Cruz before recording an out. Burrows would leave a runner on base, departing at 90 pitches. The inherited runner would eventually come in to score. The 26-year-old right-hander has disappointed so far this season with the Astros, posting a 5.66 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, and a 57/26 K/BB ratio across 68 1/3 innings into a start against the Athletics in Houston on Sunday.

Burrows allowed four hits in the first inning, but managed to hold the Rangers to just one run despite the early trouble. After pitching a scoreless second inning, Burrows would be taken deep by Joc Pederson for a solo homer in the third inning to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead, but he would settle in from there. Burrows didn’t allow another run on the night while getting through seven innings, and left with the game deadlocked at 2-2. Burrows has struggled throughout most of this season and ends this month with a 5.11 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. His next start is scheduled for Tuesday against the Pirates.

The runs came on homers from Victor Caratini and Ryan Kreidler, bringing Burrows’ total to 12 given up in 56 1/3 innings this year. He also managed just two strikeouts and walked three today. It’s probably time for Burrows to head to Triple-A for spell, but if not, he has a favorable matchup next week in Texas.

Burrows allowed eight hits, walked three and struck out four while giving up two homers for the third time this season. He’d shown improvement of late, amassing a 2.50 ERA in his previous three starts against the Yankees, Red Sox and Reds, but this leaves him 2-5 with a 5.72 ERA overall. With the Astros stretching out Kai-Wei Teng, Burrows might be a candidate for demotion if he has another outing like this next week against the Twins.

Burrows struck out six and walked one. For all of his success, he got just seven whiffs, five of which came on the changeup he threw 28 times in the 98-pitch outing. Burrows’ longest career start moved him to 2-4 with a 5.04 ERA and a 42/14 K/BB in 44 2/3 innings. He’ll face the Mariners at home next week.

Burrows ran into trouble in the third inning after opening the game with back-to-back scoreless frames. After walking Carlos Navárez to start the inning, Burrows would then allow a single to Caleb Durbin to put runners on the corners with no outs. In the following at-bat, Burrows would leave a curveball over the lower-middle of the plate, which Jaren Duran blasted 425 feet into the right field stands to put the Red Sox up 3-1. Burrows wouldn’t allow another run in the game, but the damage had been done. Despite bouncing back to fire three straight scoreless innings before being pulled after the sixth inning, the Astros were unable to mount any offensive attack, putting Burrows in line for his fourth loss of the season. Burrows has a tall task ahead of him in his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday against the Dodgers.

This would have been a nice night for Burrows in another park, but he gave up homers of 363 and 357 feet. Statcast said the first would have left 12 ballparks and the second was only a homer in Daikin. Burrows still did bring his ERA down to 6.25. He’ll probably next face the Orioles on Thursday, unless the Astros want to push him back to Friday against the Red Sox.

It looked like this was going to be a breakthrough day for Burrows; he retired the first 14 batters he faced, striking out half of them, before everything unraveled with two outs in the fifth. Five batters in a row reached on three singles and two walks, necessitating his removal. Burrows had a 36 percent CSW, and he allowed just three hard-hit balls today. His ERA now stands at 6.75 as he prepares to face the Yankees next weekend.

Burrows gave up a three-run homer to Josh Naylor in the first and two-run homer to Naylor in the third, but the Astros needed some innings from him, and he became the first Houston starter to get through six since March 31. He wound up generating 17 whiffs on 58 swings, and in spite of the two homers, the average exit velocity against him was just 86.5 mph. He’ll take a 6.65 ERA into his start against the Cardinals this weekend.