'It adds to the frustration': Mass. native Burke's best stuff elusive at Fenway

BOSTON – Pitching within reach of his hometown for just the second time in his career, Sean Burke did well enough to keep his White Sox in the game but not well enough to make it through five innings.

With his pitch count running high, the right-hander, who has been one of the best starters in the game over the last month and a half, lacked command of some offerings and the offense went dormant in a 4-0 loss against the Red Sox on Wednesday night. With Cleveland (57-58) also losing, the first-place White Sox (59-54) maintained their three-game lead over the Guardians in the AL Central.

“From the get-go, the breaking balls weren’t really there,” said Burke. “I couldn’t really command them down in the zone. I was really just pitching off my four-seam, two-seam, cutter today, which makes it harder against a lineup like that. I felt like I battled through what I had, but it’s just frustrating that I didn’t have my breaking stuff at all.”

Burke, a native of Sutton, Mass., which is about 45 miles west of Fenway Park, came into the game having gone 4-1 with a 1.42 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings over his prior eight efforts. He went at least 5 1/3 innings in each of those games and six innings or more in seven of them.

On Wednesday night, he would last just 4 1/3 innings, departing after allowing a walk to Ceddanne Rafaela in the fifth inning – his second free pass of the night.

“It’s definitely cool, but I think it adds to the frustration,” Burke said of pitching at Fenway. “One of the few times a bunch of my friends and family and people I grew up with can come watch me. For me not to have my best stuff tonight sucks, especially coming off the game yesterday; I wanted to come out and give the team a good start.”

Along with the walks, there were some uncharacteristic mistakes, including a pair of wild pitches and a balk. The right-hander also gave up a solo home run to Wilyer Abreu in the third inning, the first long ball that Burke had allowed in his last four starts.

“Maybe not his best stuff,” manager Will Venable explained. “I thought his fastball was okay, but some of his cutters and sliders were just not as sharp as we’ve seen in the last few starts. I don’t think anything major, just not as sharp as we’ve seen him in the last few.”

Yet, the White Sox were very much still in the game when he departed, seeing as he’d given up only five hits and left with his team down, 2-0.

Unfortunately, the offense was up against one of the very best starters in the game this season in Sonny Gray.

Against the Red Sox starter, Chicago could muster only three hits and two walks while striking out eight times through six innings. The White Sox would conjure up just one more hit the rest of the way.

“He had command of every pitch and was getting ahead early, flipping in the offspeed pretty well,” noted Sam Antonacci, who accounted for one of the White Sox hits on the night.

“Sonny Gray had really good stuff tonight,” added Venable. “I thought, especially with the lefties, you saw a lot of spin early in the zone that we didn’t fire on and then later in counts chasing the spin below. He’s got a lot of different ways he was attacking us; we just didn’t have any solutions.”

With the loss, the White Sox have now dropped six straight games against Boston, and will look to end this streak as they close out their three-game series at Fenway Park on Thursday evening with the newly acquired Luis Castillo getting his first start for the club.