Injury that forced Corbin Burnes from Brewers win over Mariners is described as 'minor'

SEATTLE - The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-3, on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.

They also might have dodged a major bullet in the process.

Corbin Burnes, arguably the team's most indispensable player, was forced from the game one out into the sixth inning with an injury that looked serious at first but was later diagnosed as a left pectoral strain suffered in a rundown a couple innings earlier.

For a Brewers team that already lost Brandon Woodruff on its current three-city, 10-game road trip for what is expected to be considerable time with a right shoulder strain, the news that Burnes might not even miss his next start was welcome indeed.

"Minor," is how manager Craig Counsell described it afterward. His Brewers were playing in Seattle for the first time since 2016 and just the third time since joining the National League in 1998. "We’re not ruling him out for his next start; we’ll just see how he feels the next couple of days.

"He’s pretty optimistic. He did it on the tag to end the fourth inning and it kind of progressively got a little tight on him. He called us out there when he didn’t want to make it any worse."

BOX SCORE: Brewers 7, Mariners 3

Brewers get off to early lead as Brian Anderson stays hot with team-leading 15th RBI

Milwaukee did some early damage in the second when Rowdy Tellez and Brian Anderson singled to lead off against Chris Flexen and Luke Voit followed with his first extra-base hit as a Brewer – a double to left – to make it 1-0.

Two batters later Owen Miller singled to center to score Anderson, and Joey Wiemer followed with a run-scoring fielder's choice that upped the lead to 3-0.

Seattle got a run back quickly when Cal Raleigh led off the bottom of the frame with a home run to right-center, the third allowed by Burnes this season.

While Burnes didn't come close to matching the performance he put up in his previous start in Arizona – eight shutout innings – he was still good enough to keep the Mariners off the board for the remainder of his time on the mound.

He helped himself out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth by inducing a flyout and then catching Eugenio Suárez off second during a Jarred Kelenic at-bat and eventually retiring him in a rundown.

A leadoff single by Willy Adames in the sixth netted the Brewers another run when Anderson eventually singled him home with one out. The RBI was Anderson's team-leading 15th.

Corbin Burnes says shoulder strain occurred during a rundown when he 'overstretched it'

Burnes opened the bottom of the sixth by walking No. 9 hitter J.P. Crawford, then immediately after Julio Rodríguez flew out to center he motioned to the dugout.

Counsell and athletic trainer Dave Yeager made their way to the mound and after a short consultation removed Burnes from the game.

"I think it was on the tag play on Suarez at third -- I kind of over-stretched it," Burnes said. "Didn't feel it when it happened at the time. Went in, sat down, had a quick inning, went back out and kind of felt it a little bit and thought it was more like a rib fell out of place or something. Nothing crazy.

"Got through the fifth, went in and sat back down and went out for the sixth and warming up I could feel it kind of tighten up and get cramp-y. Then the first hitter, I had zero command and then clearly the velo started to drop.

"Just one of those things where it began to cramp up and tighten up and it was affecting me mechanically and the more I threw the more it was starting to get, not necessarily painful, but just starting to cramp up and get tighter and tighter."

Peter Strzelecki entered and surrendered an run-scoring double to Ty France but he kept the score at 4-2 and pinch-hitter Brice Turang led off the seventh with a homer to right-center to quickly regain a three-run cushion.

A two-out RBI single by William Contreras then made it 6-2.

Burnes 'wasn't as sharp' as last start but he says his injury isn't too concerning

In 5 ⅓ innings, Burnes (2-1) allowed three hits, the two runs and two walks with three strikeouts over 85 pitches.

"It wasn't great today," he said. "It wasn't as sharp as last time. It wasn't that the stuff was bad; we were able to get to two strikes and then when we got to two strikes we tried to make things even better and made a lot of pitches hittable and that's why we just weren't putting guys away and we were getting balls in play with two strikes.

"That's more of my own doing than mechanical or pitch calling."

But the most important thing is that the injury doesn't appear to be anything overly concerning. But it's also worth noting Woodruff's injury progressed from something believed to be very minor to something that will sideline him for the foreseeable future in the span of just a few days.

"Not bad at all," is how Burnes described it. "Come in, get treatment tomorrow. Don't think this is going to be anything that forces us to miss a start. Something's that I think is very minor that could have gotten worse if I had kept going.

"There hasn't been any talk of pushing back (the next start) or anything, so it's just going to be business as usual when I come in tomorrow and make sure I'm comfortable."

Brewers' run in ninth allows Craig Counsell to rest Devin Williams; Joel Payamps finishes game

Matt Bush allowed a homer in the eighth as the Mariners pulled to within 6-3, but the Brewers got a gift run back in the ninth when J.P. Crawford let a Voit ground ball go right through his legs and Tellez scored from second.

That allowed Counsell to go with Joel Payamps in the bottom of the inning, and he finished the game off.

"We did a good job; we put pressure on their relievers the back half of the game," Counsell said of his team's offensive showing. "Even the inning we didn’t score (the eighth), we had the bases loaded and we just didn’t cash in. They made a defensive mistake in the end that got us an extra run and then we were able to sit Devin down. Joel did a nice job getting through that inning.

"It was a good win and we should be in good shape."

Jesse Winker, returning to Seattle for the first time since his ill-fated, one-year tenure with the Mariners in 2022, was out of the lineup for the second straight day with right side soreness but is expected to return to action Tuesday.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Corbin Burnes forced from Brewers vs Mariners game with 'minor' injury