Sean Burke knows he owes Luis Robert Jr. after Thursday's White Sox win.
Tweeting out his gratitude toward Robert Jr. for making a spectacular catch, robbing Rhys Hoskins of a grand slam was a nice gesture. However, Burke is also deserving of a lot of credit for blanking the Milwaukee Brewers.
After Robert bailed him on in the top of the first, Burke settled in nicely and retired 14 of the next 16 batters he would face. Joey Ortiz, one of the two Brewers hitters to reach base during that stretch, was unceremoniously picked off first base immediately following his second inning single.
Burke completed six scoreless innings with five strikeouts and earned his second win of the 2025 season.
Thank you Panther https://t.co/IrL0nlqzSY
— Sean Burke (@TopShelfBurkey) May 1, 2025
Burke is back in Opening Day form
The key is for Burke is maintaining that consistency moving forward, although it was not shocking to see Burke go through some adversity.
Eventually, baseball was going to come for Burke. Every team makes adjustments when there is enough tape out there on a pitcher, and after five starts, opponents started to exploit his weaknesses.
Burke's next three starts after his brilliance on Opening Day were terrible. He got roughed up by the Minnesota Twins and the Athletics and struggled with his command against Cleveland. He was only able to throw 10.2 innings during the horrific span.
Burke was able to eat some innings against Boston at Fenway, but he was spotted an opener in a return match against the A's.
While the defense did not support him much against Boston or in that second time out against the Athletics, Burke's April ERA was a disspointing 7.71.
Thankfully, after Burke got through that rough first inning against the Brewers, he looked like the dominant pitcher he was during his first five career starts when he posted an ERA under 1.50.
Burke must avoid mistakes with his slider
When Burke leaves his slider up in the zone, hitters are crushing it. Right now, batters are hitting .269 off of his slider with an expected batting average of .345. If he can command it better like he did against Milwaukee and on Opening Day, then he has the chance to have great outings on a regular basis.
It's no coincidence that Burke's two best games were the only two games his slider had a positive pitch value per FanGraphs. It was negative in his five other starts.
Hanging curveballs have led to some home runs and an increased slugging percentage for opponents. That will burn any pitcher.
Burke also has to get off to better starts as his first-inning ERA is 9.00 with a 2.00 WHIP. Once he was able to keep the Brewers off the scoreboard in the first and work in his slider effectively to complement his fastball, he found his groove.
Maybe Burke's knee is starting to feel better. That could be a contributing factor. His stuff did not look as crisp after taking a liner off the knee during his second start of the season against the Twins. Burke has said that it was impacting his work in between starts and using his back leg consistently in his mechanics.
If he can continue to throw a better slider and his knee is fully healthy, then you have got to like the chances of Burke anchoring a rotation that is already the strength of this White Sox team.