The struggling San Francisco Giants must find a way to overcome Cincinnati Reds' Cy Young candidate Chase Burns in the series opener.
The San Francisco Giants season has been a rough one, to say the least, and now they're tasked with taking on Cy Young candidate Chase Burns in their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds.
Burns will bring his astonishing 14-2 record and 2.51 ERA to Oracle Park to get the series started.
The 23-year-old has been nearly perfect this season, as proven by his 159 strikeouts (tied for 13th in the league) and his 1.11 WHIP (tied for 16th).
Here in 2026, 14 wins is good for fourth place, as Burns notably trails Sonny Gray and Cristopher Sanchez, who have 16 each.
If the Giants want to stop Burns from picking up his 15th win of the season, they're going to have to hope for a miracle, but it's worth noting one of Burns two losses took place just over two weeks ago.
Burns has been dialed in since suffering his second loss
Of all the teams that could've given Burns a run for his money, it just so happened to be the Washington Nationals who handed him a loss.
Back on August 8, Burns went just 5.1 innings against them in a start that saw him give up five earned runs on six hits.
Walks were an issue in that start as he allowed three free bases, but it's still nowhere near the six walks he allowed exactly one month prior.
Regardless, Burns has been his usual self since suffering just his second loss of the year. The Italy native has allowed just two earned runs in his last 12 innings of work, striking out 16 batters while walking just two in that sample size.
Giants recorded just two hits against Burns back in April
Shockingly, this isn't the first time the Giants have faced Burns this season. Going back to April 16, Cincinnati hosted San Francisco in a game that saw the Giants come out on top, 3-0.
Burns got no run support in that one as he left the game with it tied, 0-0, only for the Giants to score three runs in the seventh inning.
The right-handed pitcher threw six scoreless innings in a gem that saw him allow just two hits. Burns struck out four Giants and only walked one, and this came after a start against the Los Angeles Angels where he took his only other loss of the season in which he allowed five earned runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings.
Once again, walks haunted him in that one as the Angels drew four walks and struck out only twice.
For what it's worth, Willy Adames and Jung Hoo Lee had the Giants two hits against Burns while Drew Gilbert drew the walk.
