Aug 30, 2021; San Francisco, California, USA; Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell relieves starting pitcher Corbin Burnes (39) after allowing two San Francisco Giants runners to reach in the seventh inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
MLB Twitter users were not happy with Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell for pulling ace Corbin Burnes from his no-hitter.
The Milwaukee Brewers had only thrown one no-hitter in its franchise’s history, which took place back in 1987 by Juan Nieves. That all changed on Saturday during Milwaukee’s 3-0 win over the Cleveland Indians.
Corbin Burnes was striking out Cleveland’s lineup with relative ease, allowing zero hits but he was building up a high pitch count. At the end of the eighth inning, sitting at 115 pitches thrown, manager Craig Counsell opted to pull him from the game, and allow Josh Hader to close out the game for the combined no-hitter.
Many Twitter users were not too pleased with Counsell’s decision.
MLB Twitter upset with Craig Counsell over pulling Corbin Burnes during no-hitter
This was undoubtedly a difficult decision for Counsell to make. While Burnes was one inning away from a complete game no-hitter, the team does have World Series aspirations and holds a comfortable lead in the NL Central with less than a month left in the regular-season. With that high of a pitch count, Counsell chose to play it safe and avoid a potential injury to Burnes.
In his outing, Burnes struck out 14 batters and issued just one walk in eight innings of work.
Whatever you agree or disagree with Counsell’s decision, the no-hitter still goes down as the franchise’s second ever.