PHOENIX — Corbin Burnes delivered his best start since signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks in Saturday’s 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the improvement of his signature pitch was a catalyst.
Burnes blanked the Dodgers through seven innings, allowing only five singles with two walks. He struck out five hitters, including back-to-back Ks to strand a pair of runners in the fourth inning.
Burnes said he thought this was the best he’s felt on the mound this year. He pointed to his outing against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 24, when he dominated for four innings before fatigue set in.
Burnes missed his last start due to right shoulder inflammation, a dead arm period he explained happens during spring training from time to time. In the downtime, Burnes got to work with pitching coach Brian Kaplan on his mechanics.
With a fresh arm, Burnes said his signature cutter was better on Saturday night than it had been for years.
“It’s been a couple years since I’ve been able to feel like that,” Burnes said. “I think that was a good sign. That’s something that myself and Kap have been working on a lot the last month, trying to figure out what’s not making it cut. Tonight was cutting.”
Corbin Burnes, Nasty 96mph Cutter. ✂️ pic.twitter.com/hS2uCqQIw9
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 11, 2025
Shohei Ohtani laced a cutter 109.5 mph off the bat to lead off the game, and from there, the pitch was a weapon that consistently produced weak contact.
Burnes’ average exit velocity for the game was 84.3 mph, way down from his season average of 91 mph. He induced 11 groundouts to one fly out all night.
“Just consistency,” Burnes explained. “The break of it, just the amount of cut. What the numbers are telling you, what your eyes are telling you, what the hitter’s telling you, we saw a couple things tonight that were positive signs that we really hadn’t seen in a couple years.”
Corbin Burnes confident moving forward
The cutter has been Burnes’ go-to pitch since his Cy Young season in 2021 with Milwaukee. He fought with the pitch for much of last season, and this year it had been getting touched up more than he’s accustomed to.
The velocity was up from 93.9 mph to 94.9 mph, and while his vertical and horizontal breaks on average lined up with his season marks, he delivered several cutters with wicked movement.
RELATED STORIES
Brandon Pfaadt riding high with latest shutout start vs. Dodgers, has innings pitched goal
Diamondbacks recall lefty Joe Mantiply, option Cristian Mena to Triple-A
“It was turning left, that’s as simple as you can put it,” Kaplan told Arizona Sports. “He does a pretty good job of locating, or at least he has over the first couple starts of the season, but it just didn’t have the same action. And today, guys just couldn’t pick up the movement.
“I don’t know if it’s a little rest, giving the shoulder a chance to heal up and feel strong again. He worked on a couple things with the delivery, so I think it all just came together for him.”
Burnes had been getting solid results over the past month even without his best stuff.
Three of his previous four outings were quality starts (at least six innings pitched while allowing three earned runs or fewer), and he had not allowed more than two runs in any of his last three starts entering Saturday.
Corbin Burnes looked as sharp as he has all year on Saturday against the Dodgers.
"I was happy with it." pic.twitter.com/OPLpK7lA51
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 11, 2025
The Dodgers entered this game as the highest scoring team in MLB over the past two weeks, averaging eight runs per game. Lots of early-count weak contact helped Burnes go deep, which he said he’ll take over racking up strikeouts.
His pitch count allowance going in was 85-95, and he finished seven innings with 91 pitches.
“When athletes like that, that have done it for a while, tell you they’re good, you just get outta their way,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “What he told me was, if the engine’s running real smooth, just get outta my way.
“The cutter had the right depth. Kap was telling me the numbers were, when you look up there, the horizontal and vertical were exactly where he wants to throw them several times.”
Lovullo also credited Burnes’ execution with his two-seamer against righties and the changeup to lefties.
Burnes is confident the shoulder issue is behind him. The fatigue he had felt in his previous outings was absent on Saturday. Once he started throwing again this week, he figured the issue had passed.
Follow @alexjweiner
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Corbin Burnes says cutter felt better vs. Dodgers than it had for couple years )
Also on site :