SEATTLE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes came out of Monday night’s game against the Seattle Mariners in the sixth inning with a left pectoral strain.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell said he thinks it’s a minor injury and he isn’t ruling out Burnes for his next scheduled start yet.
Burnes left in the sixth but believed the injury happened at the end of the fourth inning when he placed a tag on Eugenio Suárez at the conclusion of a rundown.
“I think it just kind of overstretched it. So I’m not really sure what happened,” Burnes said. “I didn’t feel it when it happened at the time.”
Burnes said he felt something off in his chest in the fifth inning but it was the sixth when it became noticeable and started to affect his pitches.
He had just recorded the first out of the inning when Julio Rodríguez hit a long fly ball to center field that was caught by Owen Mitchell. Burnes turned toward the Milwaukee dugout and summoned Counsell and an athletic trainer before being removed from the game.
The 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner was pointing at his chest as he spoke with Milwaukee’s staff.
“When I came back after the sixth warming up, I could feel starting to tighten up and kind of get crampy,” Burnes said. “The first hitter, (J.P.) Crawford, I had zero command of anything.”
Burnes pitched 5 1/3 innings and earned the win in Milwaukee’s 7-3 victory. He allowed two runs on three hits with three strikeouts. In his previous start, he threw eight shutout innings against Arizona.
Counsell and Burnes both said the plan is for the pitcher to be re-evaluated on Tuesday, but the hope is he won’t have to miss a turn in the rotation.
“There hasn’t been any talk of pushing anything back. We’ll come in tomorrow, get some treatment…