White Sox starter Sean Burke entered Friday’s series opener against the Seattle at Rate Field on tidy roll.
In his previous three outings, the 6-6 right-hander was 2-0 with a 0.93 ERA in 19 1/3 innings. He’d allowed just two runs and 12 hits while striking out 15 and walking just two.
What’s more, Burke hadn’t yielded a run — just seven hits and one walk — in his last two appearances, both dominant outings. He tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings of three-hit bulk relief against the Nationals on April 24 in a game that went into extra innings tied at 0 at the Rate. It was the longest outing for Burke’s in three years in the majors.
Then he fanned eight Padres batters in six innings in San Diego last Saturday to lower his overall ERA to 2.72.
And the 26-year-old righty kept it up with a 1-2-3 first inning against the Mariners. He was aided by Munetaka Murakami's 15th homer, a solo shot to left that staked the Sox to a 1-0 lead in the bottom half.
But then Burke lost control — and apparently command.
After giving up a single to Josh Naylor leading off the second, Burke hit a batter, walked one and then hit another, Cole Young, to force in a run that tied it 1.
The righty fanned Brendan Donovan to prevent further damage. Temporarily.
Burke retired the first two Mariners batters routinely in the third, then gave up singles to the every-pesky Naylor and Randy Arozarena. He walked J.P. Crawford, dealing four straight balls after an opening strike, to load the based.
Very bad omen.
Luke Raley followed with his first-career grand-slam to the right-field bullpen. The drive came on center-cut fastball that Burke served on an 0-2 count after Raley swung and missed pitched on the edge of the strike zone. Raley went deep again off the reliever Tyler Davis in the seventh.
Oops. This one went off script.
Before the game, general manager Chris Getz sai
