NEW YORK -- It felt like Chase Burns reached the big leagues in a New York minute when he arrived to the Reds last year and was still learning and developing as he went. Early on in his sophomore season, Burns is already showing he's one of the best pitchers in baseball.
For most of the night, Burns dominated a struggling Mets lineup as the Reds came away with a 7-2 victory on Tuesday at Citi Field. Cincinnati (29-25) has gotten some wind in its sails again with wins in three straight games and five of its past six.
“It’s just getting used to playing at this level and just attacking hitters and trusting my stuff," Burns said.
Burns, 23, finished with two runs and four hits allowed over 5 1/3 innings, with two walks and eight strikeouts while throwing 90 pitches. A scoreless bid ended with one out in the sixth inning when Juan Soto slugged a two-run home run to right field.
Over 11 starts this season, Burns is 7-1 with a 1.96 ERA that's ranked sixth in the Major Leagues. His 72 strikeouts over 64 1/3 innings are tied for fourth in the National League.
In five May starts, Burns is 4-0 with a 1.19 ERA, eight walks and 33 strikeouts. He's given up four earned runs over 30 1/3 innings for the month.
“He’s really good, and he’s getting better. That’s exciting for us," manager Terry Francona said.
As has been the case throughout this season, Burns did most of his work with only two main pitches -- a four-seam fastball (58 pitches) and a slider (25). He threw only seven changeups.
“Heater was really good tonight," said Burns, who touched 100 mph twice with his fastball. “I felt like I was only throwing one pitch for a strike, and it was working. I need to be better with the slider next time.”
Burns may not have liked how his slider played, but Mets hitters were 1-for-7 against it with six strikeouts.
“He's got an electric arm,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It's a plus fastball, but I thought the slider was a good pitch for him today. He used it early in counts. He used it to get swing-and-misses and to put guys away. But it starts with the fastball, and he was on it.”
For the season, opponents are 14-for-102 (.137) against Burns' slider with 50 strikeouts.
No pitch in baseball has a higher whiff rate in 2026 than Burns' slider, according to Statcast. He got seven whiffs on eight attempts against his slider vs. New York, bringing the overall number to 99-of-186 (53.2 percent).
“It just wasn’t in the zone enough," Burns said of the pitch's performance on Tuesday. “Lefties did a good job of laying off of it when it was low. It just needs to be a little bit better.”
Much like Monday's 7-2 win for Nick Lodolo, the Reds built an early lead in support of Burns. Five of their first six batters reached against Mets starter David Peterson, with Eugenio Suárez's two-run double to left-center field providing a 2-0 lead.
In the fourth inning with no outs, Tyler Stephenson flared an RBI single into short right field. With two outs, Elly De La Cruz scorched a two-run double to the wall in right-center field that made it 5-0. Stephenson's RBI double to left field in the sixth ended Peterson's night.
Burns opened the night by striking out the side of Carson Benge, Bo Bichette and Soto before retiring 12 of his first 14 batters to keep the Mets from bouncing back.
At Spring Training, Burns was still learning his between-starts routine, and it prompted the club to do what it called a "de-load" of shortening a start to give him added time to improve his range of motion and flexibility to cut down on fatigue.
“So often when you see young kids get called up … then they come to Spring Training and they’ve already been in the big leagues, they just look and act and feel like they belong more,” Francona said. “And you’re seeing the way he’s carrying himself now, he doesn’t have to be told where he’s going. He knows his routine.
“I think the guys did a good job with him this spring when we slowed him down for that one time through. I think we’re seeing some of the benefits of what we did.”
The big league education remains in progress, according to Burns.
“I feel like every time I go out, I’m learning,” he said. “Just like tonight, I think you can take the positives and the negatives, learn from it and get ready for the next start.”