PHOENIX -- It’s only fair that after carrying the Brewers to so many victories since transforming himself into one of the best pitchers in baseball, Corbin Burnes would occasionally get bailed out by the bats.
Saturday was one of those nights. Rowdy Tellez hit the latest of his tying home runs in the ninth inning. Then, Tyrone Taylor, making the most of an increasingly rare start, connected for his second home run of the game in the 10th and powered the Brewers to an 8-6 win over the D-backs at Chase Field. It was an impressive comeback on a night Burnes may not have had his best stuff and definitely did not get his typical superb results.
“He’s not going to go out there every single night and put up a zero,” Taylor said after delivering three extra-base knocks as part of Milwaukee’s 12-hit attack. “It’s tough to do that as a pitcher, but he does it more often than not. To be able to put up some runs for him was huge.”
The win was huge, too. It came on a night that both the Padres and Phillies -- the teams the Brewers are behind for the National League's final two Wild Card spots -- lost their games. With the victory, Milwaukee moved 2 1/2 games back of Philadelphia for the final berth. And it came a day ahead of the Crew's matchup against the reigning NL Pitcher of the Month, Arizona right-hander Zac Gallen, who will be on the mound Sunday seeking to extend his 34 1/3-inning scoreless streak.
With a loss Saturday, the Brewers would have faced the specter of a four-game sweep.
The comeback was keyed once again by Tellez, who didn’t start because the D-backs had left-hander Madison Bumgarner on the mound. But Tellez came off the bench to deliver a two-strike home run off Ian Kennedy to tie the game at 6 with one out in the ninth. If that storyline sounds familiar, it’s because four of Tellez’s past six home runs have come in the ninth, including three that tied the game.
“I saw that we have the second-most come-from-behind wins in baseball [33],” Burnes said. “There are games we can really grind through it and beat a team like that. And these guys are hot. They’re playing good baseball, and they’re a good, young team.”
The D-backs entered Saturday having won seven of their previous eight games against the White Sox, Phillies and Brewers -- all teams with postseason aspirations.
For the Brewers to fulfill those aspirations, they figure to need more from their best starting pitcher. Three times in the span of five innings on Saturday, Burnes was handed a one-run lead, and each time, the lead slipped away. That included during the fifth inning, on Wisconsin native Daulton Varsho’s solo home run, and in the sixth, when former Milwaukee farmhand Cooper Hummel, a catcher with a .556 OPS in 169 big league plate appearances entering the night, knocked Burnes out of the game with a tying two-out double as part of a three-run rally against Burnes and Brad Boxberger.
Burnes was charged with five earned runs on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, the third straight start in which he’s allowed at least four earned runs. Over those outings, he’s allowed 20 hits (including four home runs) and 14 earned runs in 15 1/3 innings.
“The ball came out of the hand the way I wanted it to,” Burnes said. “Everything felt good. I felt sharp. Velocity and everything is good. Movement on stuff is good.”
With those boxes checked, what went wrong?
“This one is similar to the last one,” said Burnes, referring to a no-decision against the Pirates in which he allowed five earned runs in six innings, “in that I was happy with 85-90 percent of it again, and then the other 10 percent, I fell behind and worked in some counts that they got good pitches to hit, and they didn’t miss.”
The home run ball stands out as one notable problem this season. Burnes has allowed 20 homers in 164 innings in 2022, compared to seven homers in 167 innings in '21.
“I don’t know if I would look at last year’s home run total,” manager Craig Counsell said. “I don’t know if it’s fair to look at that. Home runs hurt pitchers. That’s fair. I think they’ve been cutters that didn’t finish, really, mostly. Give the other guy credit.”
Even with all that, Burnes’ season ERA is 3.02. That’s tops among Brewers starters and ranks 17th among qualified pitchers in MLB.
That sounds like a pitcher who’s earned a bailout now and again.
“We kept at it and never gave an inch and came out on top,” Counsell said.