SEATTLE -- Chase Burns picked up right where he left off.
Fresh off his first All-Star Game and a newly signed contract extension, the Reds right-hander turned in another clean outing Tuesday night, throwing five scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Burns allowed three hits and two walks while striking out six, leaving with Cincinnati ahead 3-0. His ERA dropped from 2.54 to 2.42, and he now has 124 strikeouts across 107 2/3 innings. The 23-year-old entered the night at 11-1, and this was the 16th time in 19 starts that he held an opponent to two runs or fewer.
The first few innings asked him to work a little harder than the final line suggests. Burns opened with a one-out walk in the first, but got through it unscathed. In the second, Josh Naylor singled to start the frame and Victor Robles added a one-out single, only for Burns to punch out the side and escape again.
He settled in after that, working a 1-2-3 third before running into another jam in the fourth. Cal Raleigh led off with a walk, then Naylor poked a blooped single to short center after fighting off a high fastball. Burns responded by getting Luke Raley on a slider, then watched Robles fly out and Colt Emerson strike out on another slider.
Cincinnati gave him breathing room early and kept adding to it. Elly De La Cruz opened the game against Luis Castillo, the former Reds ace, by grinding through an eight-pitch at-bat before launching a homer to right field. In the fourth, Eugenio Suárez jumped on the first pitch he saw and sent it to left-center for a two-run cushion.
Burns also got help from the defense in the fifth, his final inning on 91 pitches. Cole Young drove a ball deep to center, but TJ Friedl tracked it down with a running catch before tumbling to the ground.
Then Randy Arozarena chopped a sharp one-hopper down the third-base line, where Suárez made a strong stop and fired across his body to Sal Stewart at first for the final out. Seattle challenged the play, questioning whether Stewart kept his foot on the bag as he stretched, but the call stood after replay review.
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