Miami Marlins at Cincinnati Reds

CINCINNATI – After suffering a rare setback in his last outing, Friday night was all about getting back to his roots for Chase Burns. Burns bounced back in style in the Reds' 1-0 Friday night win over the Marlins at Great American Ball Park. Burns was coming off his roughest outing of the season last Saturday in Washington, when he gave up five runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings and was tagged with the loss in an 8-2 setback to the Nationals. That loss snapped a string of 17 starts without a loss, including 12 winning decisions. On Friday, he looked like he was back to his overpowering self and determined to start a new streak. Against Miami, the right-hander allowed just four singles, struck out eight and walked none in seven scoreless innings, going frame-for-frame with Miami ace Sandy Alcantara. "Just getting back to my roots, just trying to throw the ball over the plate and get some swing-and-miss and try to put up some zeros,” an understated Burns said afterward. What exactly are his roots? The most dominant stat line for Burns was the eight strikeouts without a walk. Not much finesse. Just a lot of power. Those were the roots he relied on Friday. “Just fill up the zone. Not trying to be too perfect. Just line it up, try to let them put it in play,” Burns said. “Yeah, I'm not a big up and down guy. I'm kind of a just 'throw it down the middle and let it eat.' Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I think it's been working so far.” So far this season, it has, to the tune of a 14-2 record with a 2.47 ERA. His biggest adjustment from last Saturday was a simple realization. “I think a lot of people are just laying off the slider,” Burns said. “I think the biggest thing is just throwing it for strikes a little bit more. Also, throwing the fastball down. I think it tunnels really well, ... and I think I did a good job today.” “He was good from the get-go, and he had to be because their guy was,” Reds manager Terry Francona said of Burns. “If you're not trying to beat him, it's a fun game to watch because we had two really good pitchers going against each other. He got enough early-count outs, and that allowed him to go deep into the game. He ended at \[93 pitches\