Burnett made history last week
PITTSBURGH — A.J. Burnett made a bit of history this past week.
The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander became the 41st pitcher in major league history to strike out 2,400 batter when he got Cincinnati Reds rookie pitcher right-hander Anthony DeSclafani swinging on Thursday night.
“It’s nice and part of it comes from being older,” Burnett, 38, said. “I’d like to get 2,500, though. I think that’d be a really nice milestone.”
Though Burnett’s record is 1-1, he has a sparkling 1.66 ERA through six starts. In fact, he is just the fourth Pirates pitcher since 1900 to give up two runs or fewer in each of his first six starts of a season.
The last pitcher with such a streak was current Pirates broadcaster Bob Walk, who had seven in a row in 1988 while going 4-1 with a 1.32 ERA. He finished that season 12-10 with a 2.71 ERA.
Two pitchers had six-game streaks — Howie Camnitz in 1909 and Earl Hamilton in 1918.
Camnitz went 25-6 with a 1.62 and his .806 winning percentage led the National League as the Pirates went on to beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Hamilton went 6-0 with a 0.83 ERA, then missed the rest of the season.
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The Pirates don’t play Cincinnati again until June 23-25 when the Reds visit PNC Park for a three-game series. The Bucs can only hope that right-hander Mike Leake’s turn doesn’t come up in the Reds’ rotation.
Leake has made 15 consecutive starts against the Pirates without a loss, dating to 2012. He is 6-0 in that span.
Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is the only pitcher with a longer streak in the last 60 years, going 16 starts in a row from 1995-2003 for the Atlanta Braves.
The longest streak since 1914, when records are first available, is 20 by Jim Hearn from 1949-53 for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants.
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The Pirates made some ignominious history last weekend when they became just the third major league team to be swept in a series of at least three games with all the losses coming in extra innings when they lost three to the Cardinals in St. Louis, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Reds took three in that fashion from the Braves in 1925 and Detroit Tigers repeated the feat in 1972 against the Minnesota Twins.