Poor execution hurts White Sox starter Sean Burke in loss to A's
Right-hander Sean Burke started his White Sox career well, holding the Athletics to two runs and five hits and striking out five in five innings in a victory on Sept. 15 of last season.
He didn’t have that much success against them the second time around and has yet to translate his flashes of success late last season to 2025.
Coming off a subpar start last Wednesday against the Guardians — three runs, three hits and four walks allowed in three innings — Burke said he wasn’t going to flush the performance. Instead, he said he was going to watch it and examine what went wrong.
He will have to assess his latest start, too, in which he allowed five runs, six hits — including two home runs — and two walks in 3⅓ innings in the Sox’ 12-3 loss Tuesday to the A’s. He has served up five homers in 16 2/3 innings this season.
‘‘Outside of the first game, I feel it’s been pretty bad,’’ Burke said of his last three starts. ‘‘Tonight, [first baseman Andrew Vaughn] was able to get us back on the board [with a three-run home run in the first inning]. I would like to be able to go five, six innings in that game and give the team a chance to win.
‘‘Obviously, I just wasn’t able to do that. It’s been frustrating. The last two [starts], just not really putting ourselves in a good position to win the game is super-frustrating for me.’’
Burke was inefficient against the A’s. He got off to a poor start, yielding back-to-back singles to Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker before Tyler Soderstrom hit a three-run homer in the first. Burke then regrouped and retired the next three batters.
The second inning, however, didn’t start much better for him. Burke allowed a single to Jacob Wilson and a run-scoring double to Gio Urshela before committing a throwing error after forcing Max Muncy to pop out, enabling Urshela to advance to third. After walking Butler on a seven-pitch at-bat, Burke righted the ship again by getting the final two outs and ending the inning with only one run allowed.
‘‘[Burke] fell behind some hitters and wasn’t really able to put guys away,’’ manager Will Venable said. ‘‘But he continued to battle and kept us in there for a run there, and we just couldn’t mount a comeback.’’
Burke said his troubles last week against the Guardians were mechanical and those against the A’s were more about execution. He has made only seven starts in the majors and has good velocity on his fastball, which hovers in the mid-90s. The quick fix would be to solve his home-run problem, given that he has allowed the most on the team.
‘‘The stuff felt fine, just not getting it to good spots, not getting ahead of guys as much,’’ Burke said. ‘‘It’s more the ability to make pitches when I need to.’’
Burke’s slider has been hammered all season. He entered the game Tuesday having allowed three homers off the pitch. Shea Langeliers connected on one of Burke’s sliders for a solo shot in the third.
The feel for the slider has eluded Burke so far, leading to shorter, rougher outings. Figuring out why is paramount for him to get his season back on track.
‘‘When my stuff was going good last year, I could roll out of bed and throw my slider to a spot I wanted to throw it to,’’ he said. ‘‘Right now, I’m not doing that.’’