CINCINNATI (AP) — Major league debuts are a milestone for any player.
Chase Burns had one for the record books.
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David Burns, center left, and Trinetti Burns, center right, parents of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Chase Burns, sit in the stands during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns walks onto the field before his debut in a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
The Cincinnati Reds rookie became the first starting pitcher in the expansion era to strike out the first five batters on Tuesday night against the New York Yankees.
The 22-year old Burns, the second overall pick in last July's amateur draft, gave up three runs in five innings, but his teammates made sure that the night ended on a positive note as the Reds rallied for a 5-4 victory in 11 innings.
“I feel like after the first batter, I kind of settled in there, but I was amped up, so it was fun,” Burns said. “It was everything I could ask for. I mean, to walk it off like that, to be in the dugout and see that, there’s nothing better than that.”
The right-hander struck out his first five batters before Jazz Chisholm Jr's single. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, the seventh Cincinnati starter to have at least that many in his first career start.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Burns also joined the Yankees’ Al Leiter (vs. Brewers in 1987) and Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis (vs. Tigers in 2009) as the only pitchers since 1961 whose first six outs in their debuts were strikeouts. Both gave up a run during the first two innings.
The Dodgers' Pete Richert struck out the first six batters he faced in relief against the Reds in 1962, but the third batter reached on a third strike passed ball.
“That was pretty cool,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “He didn’t get too excited, I think he enjoyed the competition. There’s a lot to like. His slider is really good.”
Burns struck out seven of his first 10 hitters and allowed only one hit until Ben Rice led off the fourth by connecting on a hanging slider that went 413 feet and two-thirds of the way into the right field sun deck at Great American Ball Park.
Aaron Judge followed with a base hit. Burns retired the next two hitters, Chisholm got aboard with a single and Anthony Volpe hit a two-run triple when center fielder TJ Friedl made an ill-advised dive and the ball got by him.
Catcher Tyler Stephenson noticed though that the three-run fourth did not faze Burns too much.
“I think the maturity shows when they score a couple runs and then he goes right back out the next inning and goes out and attacks,” he said.
Burns averaged 98.1 mph with 48 fastballs, topping out with a pair at 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. New York was 1 for 9 with six strikeouts in his first time through the order and 5 for 9 with a triple and home run the second time through.
Burns threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes. His first big league pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham that just caught the inside corner of the plate. He got Judge to chase a 91.1 mph slider for the third out in the first inning.
“Big arm. Excited for his future. He’s running it up there at 100 miles per hour and has a good feel for all the breaking pitches,” Judge said. “It was impressive to see him out there doing his thing. You see guys like that kind of amped up and throwing it all over the place, but he did a good job of attacking the zone.”
Burns also fell behind 3-0 on three of the first 10 batters before ending up with strikeouts.
Burns started 11 of 21 batters with strikes and induced 12 swing and misses. He is the fifth first-round selection from last year’s draft to reach the majors, joining Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone, Angels second baseman Christian Moore and Astros outfielder Cam Smith, who was selected by the Cubs before going to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade last December.
“Everyone has kept telling me to do what I’ve been doing and not change anything,” Burns said.
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David Burns, center left, and Trinetti Burns, center right, parents of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Chase Burns, sit in the stands during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns walks onto the field before his debut in a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Chase Burns delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
