White Sox right-hander Sean Burke just stared at the ball as he waited on the mound for manager Will Venable’s hook.
Burke’s glare was one of a pitcher looking for answers. He threw 4⅔ innings, allowed six runs (five earned) and seven hits, struck out four and tied a career high with five walks in the Sox’ 7-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, their franchise-record seventh consecutive defeat against their crosstown rivals.
“I’m not striking out as many guys as I have in the past, really in my whole life,” Burke said.
The walks gnawed at Burke after the game. Against a potent Cubs lineup that entered Saturday with the second-most runs (257) and third-most steals (51) in the majors, he knows the self-inflicted mistakes can’t happen, particularly against the base-stealing-happy Cubs.
Burke is at his best when he’s aggressive, getting ahead of hitters and pounding the zone with his fastball.
“It was awful,” he said of his command. “It was terrible. My last two starts, it’s been terrible. You can’t walk five people and expect to have good results.”
Burke breezed through the first inning, striking out the side. He began the second with a 1-0 lead thanks to shortstop Chase Meidroth’s home run. But Burke let the lead slip away quickly.
He allowed a single and stolen base to Dansby Swanson before back-to-back walks to Moises Ballesteros and Nico Hoerner — after both hitters fell behind in the count — to load the bases.
Then the Cubs pounced on Burke. Ballesteros and Swanson scored on Miguel Amaya’s single to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Burke got Vidal Brujan to ground out before Pete Crow-Armstrong’s line-drive single increased the lead to 4-1. But Burke got Kyle Tucker to pop out for the second out, and Seiya Suzuki lined out to end the inning.
Burke allowed two runs over his next 2⅔ innings. Relievers Mike Vasil, Cam Booser and Jared Shuster allowed one in 3⅓ innings.
Entering Saturday, Burke had a 28.9% walk rate with a .370/.553/.796 slash line when hitters were ahead in the count. With a low strikeout rate — Burke generated only seven whiffs, his third-fewest of the season — he has to get lots of ground balls to be a viable starter.
“The big part of that is command-wise, not getting ahead of guys like I normally do,” he said. “I just have to be better with the walks.”
Burke has been struggling in his first extended run in the rotation. He has to trust — and harness — his fastball better in the zone. That pitch is his best offering, and he needs to lean on it because his slider hasn’t been effective. Burke said his arm is late on pitches and that he needs to get in sync with his mechanics.
The Sox can afford to give him starts to work out the kinks, but he has to find a remedy to his walk issues — and fast.
“He was a little erratic today, and we’ve seen it the last couple of starts from him,” Venable said.
“We’ve just got to get him back on track and competitive in the zone.”