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 last six.
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 is 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.
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 filthy slider (25). He threw only seven changeups.
Mets hitters were 1-for-7 against Burns' slider with six strikeouts. For the season, opponents are 14-for-102 (.137) against that pitch with 50 strikeouts.
No pitch in baseball has a higher whiff rate in 2026 than Burns' slider, according to Statcast. He got seven-of-eight whiffs on his slider vs. New York bringing the overall number to 99-of-186 (53.2 percent)
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 that scored Dane Myers. With two outs, Elly De La Cruz scorched a two-run double to the wall in right-center field that made it a 5-0 game. Stephenson's RBI double to left field in the sixth ended Peterson's night.