SEATTLE -- Mike Burrows is getting a quality baseball education every time he steps on the mound.
The Pirates’ rookie right-hander found himself in yet another tight, low-scoring game on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park, and he did his part to continue the season as a Pittsburgh rotation mainstay.
Burrows tossed five scoreless innings and navigated some tricky waters against the Mariners on the shore of Puget Sound. The Pirates would go on to lose the game, 1-0, but with each start, Burrows is learning and proving he belongs.
“He threw the changeup really well,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “The fastball was working. One of the big keys for me was with his offspeed, when he was able to land that curveball early in the count, especially. That opened everything else up, and he had a really, really good outing.”
Burrows looked like a veteran in key situations. In the bottom of the third inning, for example, J.P. Crawford got him for a one-out ground-rule double. But Burrows induced a groundout off the bat of Julio Rodríguez and didn’t flinch when Kelly elected to intentionally walk Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who leads the Majors with 35 home runs and hit two against the Pirates on Friday.
Burrows accepted the challenge and struck out cleanup hitter Randy Arozarena looking.
Arozarena, who hit five home runs in the first five games of this Seattle homestand, couldn’t figure out Burrows all night. The 25-year-old righty, whom the Pirates selected in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft, punched him out on called third strikes in his first three at-bats. It was a first for Burrows, who had never struck out the same batter three or more times in a game.
Meanwhile, Burrows couldn’t quite figure out Raleigh, either, but he wasn’t going to offer him anything middle-middle. He walked him three times, including the intentional pass.
“I don't think I was as mad about [the walks] tonight, because it was two good hitters that could do damage,” Burrows said. “We were trying to make good pitches in certain counts, so I think the walks were OK tonight. There's just a couple batters I fell behind on early that I didn't want to.”
When it comes to shutouts, the Pirates seem to be helping author the book on the subject for the 2025 season. After Saturday night’s result, Pittsburgh leads the Majors in getting shut out by opponents with 12. The Bucs have thrown 10 themselves, which ties them with St. Louis for the second-most in the Majors behind San Diego. That means almost a quarter of their games (24.4%) have resulted in shutouts.
The Pirates rank with the 2014 Rays (10-12 record) and 1989 Dodgers (12-10) as the only teams in the past half-century to both win and lose 10 or more shutouts in a season prior to the All-Star break.
This means they are pitching quite well and could use some more offensive oomph, but that was tough to come by against Mariners righty Luis Castillo, who was displaying the form that has made him a three-time All-Star.
The Pirates went down in order until Spencer Horwitz led off the fourth inning with a single. Their only other hit was a Horwitz single with two outs in the sixth. They did not draw a walk and struck out eight times in Castillo’s seven innings, and they weren’t able to get any runners past first base all game.
“Castillo threw the ball well,” Kelly said. “When you see the two-seamer, the four-seamer, and then he's able to mix it up and throw his offspeed in there. He’s a veteran guy that kept us off-balance and utilized two fastballs really well against us.”
As for the Pirates, they intend to keep grinding and try to give their hot pitching staff some support.
“It’s tough right now,” Kelly said. “I mean, we hit some balls hard tonight. But we need to bunch them together and continue to be more consistent in our at-bats.”