Reds Put Chase Burns on an Innings Limit Tonight — He Answered With 3 Hitless Innings at Dodger Stadium
The 23-year-old right-hander, already at 15 wins and a 2.79 ERA, began a new workload restriction Monday night against the NL West-leading Dodgers and didn't allow a hit before Cincinnati's bullpen took over.
Chase Burns has already blown past his 2025 workload by more than 30 innings, and with the Reds well out of playoff position at 69-74, Cincinnati made a decision entering Monday night's game at Dodger Stadium: the 23-year-old righty would pitch under a real innings limit for the rest of the season, with reliever Brandon Williamson lined up to "piggyback" him no matter how the start was going. It's the kind of proactive workload management teams increasingly use to protect a young arm who's already thrown 145.1 innings — more than 30 more than he threw in all of 2025.
Burns didn't need the extra length anyway. Facing a Dodgers lineup that had Shohei Ohtani back after a planned rest day, he worked 3 hitless, scoreless innings, striking out 5 against a single walk on just 44 pitches — his fastball touching 98.5 mph and a low-90s slider that has produced a 56.3% whiff rate all season. The Dodgers were reportedly cautious enough about facing him that Mookie Betts and Will Smith both sat out entirely against Burns specifically, even though the Dodgers entered the night 86-57 and rolling.
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Cincinnati even handed Burns a lead before he threw a pitch: Elly De La Cruz led off the bottom of the first with a 412-foot solo home run off Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan. But the length limit meant Burns' night ended after three, and once Williamson took over, the game turned on Cincinnati's defense rather than its pitching. A fifth-inning throwing error let two runs score — both unearned — flipping a 1-0 Reds lead into a 2-1 Dodgers edge. Williamson himself stayed sharp, striking out three in his two innings of relief, so the shift wasn't about the pitching plan failing; it was the Reds' glovework undoing what their arms had built.
It's a fitting snapshot of Cincinnati's season. Burns has developed into a genuine building block — 15 wins, a 2.79 ERA, and a 171:50 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 26 starts — on a team that's still 5 games under .500 with less than a month left. The Reds' priority now isn't this particular final score. It's making sure the arm that just no-hit a playoff lineup for three innings is still fresh enough to do it again next April.
What happened Monday night
Elly De La Cruz opened the game with a 412-foot solo home run off Emmet Sheehan, staking Burns to an early lead.
Burns worked around a single walk to strike out 5 and keep the Dodgers hitless, exiting on plan at 44 pitches per Cincinnati's new innings-limit approach.
With Brandon Williamson piggybacking in relief, a Reds throwing error let in two unearned runs, putting Los Angeles ahead 2-1.
Whatever the final score, Monday night answered the real question Cincinnati was asking: can Burns still be dominant on a shorter leash? Three hitless innings against a lineup that benched two regulars just to avoid facing him is about as clear an answer as a small sample can give.
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Sources: ESPN, Yahoo Sports, MLB.com, Dodgers Digest