HOUSTON -- Mike Burrows has had an up-and-down first season with the Astros. That trend continued on Thursday.
Following arguably his best start in his Major League career in his last outing against the Reds, Burrows was hit hard in an 8-3 loss to the Mariners at Daikin Park.
Burrows was tagged for a career-high seven runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“He was one or two pitches away from having a really good outing,” Houston manager Joe Espada said. “That’s what’s frustrating. His stuff was really good. He attacks. He misses once or twice, and that costs him a couple of runs, but his stuff is really good.
“He’s better than that, and I believe that we are not going to see these outings often because he’s got really good stuff. We just got to continue to help him against some of these lineups. Again, one or two pitches away from another quality start.”
The right-hander threw a career-high seven scoreless innings on May 8 at the Reds, and he had yielded three or fewer runs in the previous three straight starts before Thursday.
“It’s not an easy game, you know?” Burrows said. “I could have made the perfect pitches and stuff still happens. Baseball just sucks sometimes. I mean, yeah, I didn’t make the best pitches, so there’s definitely stuff to go back and evaluate and look at, and kind of understanding maybe go up and in instead of up and away. There’s a bunch to look at for sure.”
Burrows mixed up his pitch selection against the Mariners. The right-hander entered using his four-seam fastball and changeup both 28% of the time, with the slider (17%), curveball (15%) and sinker (14%) composing the rest.
On Thursday, Burrows threw 29 changeups out of 102 pitches, followed by the sinker (22), slider (21), four-seamer (16) and curveball (14), according to Baseball Savant. He got four whiffs on both the changeup and slider out of 12 whiffs total.
"I think we threw the sinker a good amount today,” Burrows said. “We’ve thrown it to lefties. Maybe a couple hits on it. I don’t think the four-seamer is a problem or anything I’m doing throwing it. I think it’s just location and understanding that the reports that we are getting on these hitters, I think the ballpark needs to be taken into factor as well.”
The Astros traded for Burrows in the offseason, with the hope he would bolster the rotation, but the results have been mixed.
He has consistently eaten up innings for Houston, leading the team with 50 1/3 innings pitched through nine starts, but he also has nearly as many starts allowing four or more runs (4) as starts allowing three or fewer runs (5).
Burrows leads the Astros’ pitching staff with 46 strikeouts, but he also leads staff allowing 10 home runs. The long ball got him again on Thursday, as he gave up a three-run shot to Luke Raley in the first, and a two-run homer to Mitch Garver in the fourth.
“Some walks. A couple pitches and walks,” Burrows said of his outing. “I think the first home run, that was exactly what I was trying to do with the fastball. Maybe a little higher. That was the exact quadrant we wanted it. I thought I beat him. He got a little more barrel than I thought to it. He found the right spot.”
The Astros fell to 1-7 against the Mariners and dropped to 17-28 on the season with the Rangers coming to Houston starting Friday for the first of three games.
Espada said he is looking for more consistency from his team.
“I just would like to put some consistency in back-to-back games and we can really get rolling, and we can create a winning streak,” he said. “We know the length of this season. We know how long it is. We just have to continue to do the little things better like we cannot continue to play from behind every single day. It makes it tough to chase every single day.
“We have to be better at keeping games close and giving our offense an opportunity. When we do that, our pitching comes along, and we hand the ball to the back of the bullpen and win some games. We just have to increase the consistency from that aspect.”