Sean Burke, Davis Martin will need to be durable for White Sox, who lose to Astros

The White Sox are going to need Sean Burke and Davis Martin to be at their best to win the American League Central. That means Burke and Martin will have to breeze past their career highs in innings pitched while staying effective.

The foundation for them to do that was built last year, when both set their personal marks, albeit when the stakes were much lower.

On their way to their third straight 100-loss season, the Sox got 142‰ innings from Martin and 134⅓ from Burke. As Martin said, both had “training wheels” on in 2025 because of their respective injury histories: Martin hadn’t pitched a full season since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023, and shoulder issues limited Burke in 2023 and 2024.

“Looking back, it was the best thing for us,” Martin told the Sun-Times on Saturday before the Sox lost to the Astros 4-1. “We had a solid workload last year, so throwing 170-180 innings isn’t going to be too over the top compared to going from 80 innings to 180.”

That many innings this year is possible for both. The Sox have 59 regular-season games left, and they hope a few more in October.

Through 20 starts, Martin already has pitched 111 innings. Like Martin did Friday, Burke ran into trouble in the sixth Saturday. After throwing five scoreless innings, Burke loaded the bases with no outs. Isaac Paredes singled to right to bring in two runs, and when Braden Montgomery overran the ball, a third scored.

The inning was decisive, spoiling an otherwise-solid night for Burke, who was beaten by Hunter Brown’s seven scoreless innings. Burke struck out 10 and didn’t look like a pitcher wearing down at 118⅓ innings.

“I [am] just taking care of my arm and the on-field results but also trying to stay consistent with my routine in between weeks, too,” Burke said.

The Sox certainly will monitor him and Martin, but innings limits are not in their future.

“You just need to be mindful between starts and having an idea of where they’re at, physically, mentally and those things,” manager Will Venable said. “But as far as innings go, that’s not something that’s going to limit us or drive what we do.”

Knowing that, it’s on the pitchers as much as anybody to stay on their programs to keep themselves on the mound.

Martin said he has introduced correctives from past back spasms and forearm problems to his regular schedule to try to avoid future issues. He made it past 80 innings healthy, which he couldn’t do last year, when he went on the injured list in June with a forearm strain, interrupting an otherwise durable 2025.

“The last two to three years have been a really good runway for me to figure out what has and hasn’t worked for me in the past,” Martin said.

Even if Martin’s methods continue working, it doesn’t mean he’ll feel great the rest of the year. Martin said he spoke with former Sox pitchers Lance Lynn, Martin Perez and Dylan Cease about throwing a lot of innings, and they shared what worked for them.

“The overview is that no one feels good,” Martin said. “No one feels 100% in October and September. So that is the biggest thing for me mentally, just thinking ‘Hey, you’re going to have to push through some stuff.’ I feel like we’ve already done that this year.”