Corbin Burnes Delivers Gem, Diamondbacks Shut Out Dodgers

The D-backs' ace delivered a truly dominant performance.

Diamondbacks pitcher Corbin Burnes (39) pitches against the Dodgers during a game at Chase Field on May 10, 2025, in Phoenix. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Arizona Diamondbacks took a 2-1 lead in their four-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 3-0 in front of 47,106 fans on Saturday. Corbin Burnes delivered his most impressive start of the season, and the offense did just enough.

Burnes began his outing by serving up a single to the dangerous Shohei Ohtani. But the baserunner was quickly erased by a ground ball double play. That set the tone for an efficient start to what would eventually become a brilliant day on the mound for the ace.

Burnes completed seven innings, just the second time a D-backs' starter has done so all season after Zac Gallen did so on May 6. Burnes gave up five hits — all singles —and walked two, though one was an intentional walk of Ohtani.

Though Burnes did work through some base traffic in the third and fourth, he truly never faltered, and kept a strong handle on the game throughout. He collected 12 whiffs, spread nearly evenly among his entire arsenal.

The ace looked much more like the pitcher Arizona expected to get this season. He held Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to one collective base hit — the single that led off the game. Burnes lowered his ERA to 2.95, below 3.00 for the first time all season.

"It was just a great day all the way around for Corbin," manager Torey Lovullo told reporters postgame. "We won this game today by what he was able to do. ... This is a really good team that we're playing, clearly, and for us to shut that ball club out was really impressive," Lovullo said.

Burnes missed his previous start due to shoulder inflammation. Though he rarely misses starts, the ace came out firing after an extra week of rest, and certainly looked to be feeling better on Saturday.

"He said he felt great, and he was ready to go out. What he told me was, if the engine's running real smooth, just get out of my way. ... At the end of it, I just trusted that he was going to go out there and have really good stuff," Lovullo said.

Burnes told reporters that "everything felt good" with his shoulder, and that he was pleased with his outing on Saturday.

"Having nine or ten days to come out and command the ball the way we did, spin it the way we did, I was happy with it."

The ace said his trademark cutter felt good as well. The pitch was sharp, consistent, and landing for strikes all night. Burnes' outings tend to go as the cutter goes, and the righty said he'd been working to get it back to true form

"It's been a couple of years since I've been able to feel it like that. So I think that's kind of a good sign. That's something that myself and [pitching coach Brian Kaplan] have been working on a lot... trying to figure out what it is that's not making it cut. Tonight it was cutting, so we'll keep rolling," Burnes said.

The D-backs' offense struggled to put up much traffic early on, but did manufacture a run in the third inning. Corbin Carroll led the inning off with a triple — his fifth of the season. He was brought home on a hard-hit RBI groundout by Ketel Marte.

From there, it was relatively smooth sailing for Dodgers' righty Dustin May, as Arizona didn't put much of a threat in the middle innings.

However, Eugenio Suárez did club his 12th homer of the season in the sixth inning, a towering, 455-foot blast to left center. That spotted Arizona a 2-0 lead.

Right-hander Ryne Nelson took over for Burnes in the eighth, and tossed a sturdy 1-2-3 inning against Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, punching out Betts looking with a cutter on the bottom left corner of the zone.

Both clubs would trade scoreless innings, until Marte ripped a double to center in the home half of the eighth, and Pavin Smith knocked a double of his own down the right-field line. Smith finished an impressive 3-for-4 with the double and RBI on the night.

Nelson made quick work of the ninth, locking down his first save of the season with two hitless, scoreless innings. He needed just 16 pitches to mow down the Dodgers' top six hitters. It was an extremely well-pitched win for Arizona, finding redemption after their heartbreaker on Friday.

"It was a great bounce-back win," Lovullo said. "I was really proud of how the guys cycled through what happened last night. As frustrating as it was, they came out here focused and ready to play."

After guaranteeing at least a split in this series, the Diamondbacks will be back in action on Sunday, looking to take three of four at 1:10 p.m. behind right-hander Zac Gallen.