Demoted White Sox Pitcher Makes First Start In Triple-A

The White Sox hope time in the Minor Leagues can help their Opening Day starter get back on track.

Sean Burke took the first step in that process on Friday, starting for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights against the Norfolk Tides of the Baltimore Orioles' organization. He finished with five innings, eight hits, four earned runs, three walks, four strikeouts and one home run allowed across 89 pitches.

Burke allowed his first run in the first inning after walking Jud Fabian, who stole second base. He nearly got out of the inning after striking out former White Sox first basem an Ryan Noda, but Burke allowed an RBI single to Emmanuel Rivera in the next at-bat, which had an exit velocity of 99.3 mph.

The Tides quickly tacked on two more runs against Burke, who gave up singles to three of the first four batters in the second inning. The RBI single came on a softly hit fly ball –– just a 65.4 mph exit velocity –– off the bat of Jordyn Adams, who gave Norfolk a 3-0 lead.

After getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the third, Burke allowed a leadoff home run to Adams in the fourth. He finished strong, retiring six of the next seven batters to finish his outing.

Burke, 25-year-old rookie, had a 4.28 ERA and a 1.44 WHI P with 110 strikeouts and 54 walks across 117.2 innings and 24 appearances with the White Sox. He had some positive moments, totaling seven quality starts, but he hadn't been as sharp of late.

Burke did not make it past 3.2 innings in either of his last two starts, and he was inefficient with 85-plus pitches in each outing. He has taken a loss in each of his last three decisions, and the White Sox are 1-7 in the last eight games Burke has pitched.

White Sox general manager recently explained the decision to send Burke down to the Minor Leagues.

“We obviously have high expectations for Sean, and he's got high expectations for himself,” Getz said, per MLB.com's Scott Merkin. “We had reached a point, and our assessment thus far is he needs to take another step. He's obviously done a nice job, first year in the Major Leagues for a full season. We think he can be an impactful Major League starter at this level." 


“Now, there's going to be steps that need to be made to get there. And we were having a tough time making those strides here with the Major League club. This is not unique to other situations where we've taken other players and put them in different environments to focus on certain things.”