PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks ace Corbin Burnes struck out 10 batters for the first time this year in Friday’s 8-0 win over the lowly Colorado Rockies.

Burnes shut out the Rockies through six innings, going back-to-back starts without a run surrendered. He tossed seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers last weekend.

He’s previously said he’ll take five-pitch innings over strikeouts any day, but racking up this many Ks may be the exception.

“Ten Ks or five-pitch innings, nothing in between,” Burnes joked.

The offense gave him some early run support with two runs in the second, another in the third and two more in the fourth off Rockies left-hander Carson Palmquist, making his MLB debut. They didn’t hit any home runs but built innings and drove in runs by putting the ball in play.

Tim Tawa doubled home the first run, Corbin Carroll scored after hitting a ground-rule double in the third and Gabriel Moreno plated a run on a double down the line in the fourth.

Moreno finished 3-for-3 with two doubles, while Geraldo Perdomo drove in three runs to retake the team lead with 34 RBIs.

“They did a great job of staying on them all night,” Burnes said. “Creating a lot of space. … Shutouts are always nice.”

Corbin Burnes kept striking out Rockies

Burnes allowed a single in the first inning and one more hit through the rest of his outing, although he was not pleased with his three walks.

He only faced real trouble once. With the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, Burnes struck out Mickey Moniak on three pitches to end the scare. Moniak whiffed at a curveball on the low-outside corner, which he set up with a cutter in.

“When I need to, I can get a swing-and-miss,” Burnes said.

That kicked off a stretch in which Burnes punched out six of eight hitters, as he struck out the side in the sixth to end his day.

Burnes drew 19 whiffs on 44 pitches (43%), 10 with the cutter.

“For the most part it had more cut tonight,” Burnes said. “Kind of the middle innings is where we lost the command. Mechanically, we were starting to try to do too much and you can see the cut all of a sudden stop cutting. Found it there in the sixth again.”

He called the outing merely “pretty good” considering the walks, but he felt he’s getting closer to ideal form.

His season ERA dropped to 2.56, which ranks 14th among major league starters.

The Diamondbacks have won his last three starts, and he’s gone four outings without allowing more than one earned run.

Corbin Burnes, 2Ks in the 5th.

7Ks thru 5. pic.twitter.com/htrllaHLse

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 17, 2025

Kevin Ginkel, Kendall Graveman and Scott McGough finished the job without allowing a hit in a largely drama-free ballgame, especially compared to Wednesday’s nail-biting 8-7 win at the San Francisco Giants.

Diamondbacks pitching picked up 14 strikeouts.

Diamondbacks avoid playing down to competition

The Rockies continued their historically poor start, falling to to 7-37. That is the worst record through 44 games in the Modern Era (1901). Their -145 run differential is nearly twice as putrid as the next-worst in MLB (Baltimore, -75).

They are now 2-21 on the road this season and astonishingly 1-21 in night games.

The Diamondbacks did what they needed to do against a lesser opponent, as they finished the game with 12 hits, three walks and four stolen bases.

Arizona improved to 20-7 against its division foes since the start of 2023.

“The group did a tremendous job as a whole,” Moreno said. “We did the little things, which was very important.”

“Pretty clean baseball game,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “You guys ask me questions about maybe a little bit of a natural let down and nobody did today. That’s the mark of a good team.”

The Diamondbacks (24-21) have won three of their last four games after a series win at Oracle Park.

Diamondbacks’ next game

The series continues on Saturday night with a familiar pitching matchup. Zac Gallen (4.59 ERA) will make his 16th career start against Colorado, more than any other team except San Francisco (16).

Right-hander German Marquez (8.27 ERA) will take the mound against Arizona for the 23rd time, more than he’s faced any other club.

First pitch is at 5:10 p.m. and will air on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.