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Few moments match the excitement of a starting pitcher's MLB debut.
However, they aren't always a proper indicator of what's to come.
Between the adrenaline nearly dripping off them and the nerves they are trying to suppress, pitchers often throw harder and with less control than their profiles suggest.
On Tuesday, Cincinnati Reds top prospect Chase Burns took the hill against the New York Yankees. He was everything the Cincinnati faithful had been waiting for and more.
Chase Burns made an incredible first impression
Burns, unsurprisingly, came out firing. His first pitch was a 98-mph fastball for a called strike. He threw his next two pitches even harder, touching triple digits before retiring Trent Grisham on a 93-mph slider.
Grisham was his first victim, but far from the last. Burns struck out the first five batters he faced, blowing Ben Rice away with fastballs and wiping out the sport's scariest hitter, Aaron Judge, on a slider.
"I've watched him," Burns said, via Mark Sheldon. "He's a big dude, one of the best hitters in the game. That's probably my favorite one."
After recording his first six outs via the strikeout, he found two more in his five innings of work. Burns finished allowing three runs on six hits, striking out eight without recording a walk.
MORE: Reds phenom Chase Burns makes MLB history not done in 63 years as part of electric debut
The biggest blemish of his debut was a Rice home run on a hanging slider. Some bad defensive luck put another two runs on the board, but he was otherwise dominant.
"It was fun, those first two innings," he said. "I felt like after the first batter, I kind of settled in there. I was amped up, so it was fun."
Burns saw his velocity spike in the first inning, as expected. He didn't touch 100 mph after those first three outs, although he averaged over 98 mph on the evening. That lightning fastball headlines Burns' arsenal. His slider might be the best among current pitching prospects. Picking up 12 whiffs, those two offerings lived up to the billing.
Reds fans should expect more of the same
For much of his debut, Burns resembled an ace. More importantly, he looked just like the top-two pick that flew through the minor leagues.
Burns attacked the zone with his fastball, doing so 58.3% of the time. He had New York chasing his slider out of the zone and sprinkled in just enough changeups to left-handed hitters to keep them honest.
Even the home run he surrendered wasn't a surprise. Giving up barrels is the cost of doing business for competing in the strike zone. If he can limit the free passes, which he did on Tuesday, it's a trade-off the Reds will happily accept.
"Just trust my stuff, really," Burns said, regarding his approach to facing Judge. "It's a batter. He still has to hit the ball."
Burns has big-league stuff with promising command. He's going to challenge the game's biggest stars, and if his debut was any indication, he's going to find plenty of success.
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