So much of the Texas Tech series against the TCU Horned Frogs was awful. So much of the Red Raiders’ weekend wasn’t all that enjoyable. But, on Sunday, Texas Tech baseball fans did get to see Jackson Burns deliver one of the best starts that the Red Raiders have gotten from this pitching staff all season. Burns truly gave the Red Raiders a real shot at winning on Sunday.
The bulk of Texas Tech’s road series against the Horned Frogs was defined by awful pitching struggles. But in Game 3, as the Red Raiders were doing everything possible to avoid getting swept, Burns stepped up in a meaningful way and thrived during the six innings he was on the mound.
Burns threw 95 pitches in Fort Worth on Sunday and 64 of those were good for strikes. Burns managed to limit a team that scored 28 runs through the first two games of this series to just two runs during his outing. He didn’t allow a hit to TCU after the third inning.
Jackson Burns gave the Texas Tech Red Raiders a chance to win on Sunday as he struck out 8 TCU Horned Frogs batters
All of this is really impressive when you look at how Burns himself has struggled this season. The Red Raiders, as a whole, have a pitching problem and Burns hasn’t exactly played well at times this year. Right now, after that solid outing on the road against TCU, his ERA sits at 7.80 (which isn’t good).
But, there’s potential there. If Burns can keep performing like this, then the Red Raiders might be able to get some momentum on their struggling pitching staff. And that would be huge for a team that can seemingly score at will.
Burns did his job on Sunday as he struck out eight batters. We’ll see if this is a performance that the Red Raiders can continue to build around.