Corbin Burnes' amazing streak is finally over - but not before he staked his claim as the game's greatest control artist to start a season.

The Milwaukee Brewers right-hander issued his first walk of the season Thursday, a 3-1 fastball too high to St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Tommy Edman - but not before passing Kenley Jansen for the most strikeouts to start a season without a walk.

A second-inning strikeout of Harrison Bader was Burnes' fourth of the game and 52nd of the season, surpassing Jansen's 51 strikeouts without a walk to begin the 2017 season.

Burnes would go on to strike out six more batters – and run up a pair of three-ball counts – to stretch his streak to 58 strikeouts without a walk. Then Edman, who has a .337 on-base percentage, laid off four balls and the streak was done, eliciting a modest round of appreciative applause from the home crowd in Milwaukee.

The roar was louder and more sustained after Burnes' strikeout of Bader etched Burnes further into baseball's record book.

"It was pretty cool," Burnes said after the Brewers' 2-0 loss. "You get the whole stadium behind you like that, it definitely gives you chills. It was a pretty cool moment to do it at home."

On April 21, Burnes struck out 10 San Diego Padres, breaking Adam Wainwright's 2013 record of 35 strikeouts without a walk by a starting pitcher to begin a season, a mark that dates to 1893, when the pitching rubber was set at 60 feet, 6 inches.

Thursday was Burnes' first start since April 26, which preceded a positive test for COVID-19 and a trip to the injured list.

He said he was asymptomatic and Thursday looked largely unaffected - nine strikeouts in five innings, running his total to an astonishing 58 strikeouts in 34 ⅓ innings.

And now, against just one walk.

"It’s a walk. It happens," says Burnes, whose ERA is now 1.57 while still holding a safe lead in strikeout-walk ratio to No. 2 Gerrit Cole of the Yankees - 58 to 26.

"To go out on the mound and just be able to not walk a guy this far into the season is not something I had dreamed of. To be able to go that long without walking one is pretty special, and I guess now I have to start over."

Burnes' record comes five days after Brewers closer Josh Hader set his own record - 400 strikeouts in just 234 2/3 innings, breaking Craig Kimbrel's mark of 236.

"We’re talking about baseball history," says Brewers manager Craig Counsell. "We’re talking about rare air. The numbers for Corbin and for Josh are hard to comprehend.

"He’s off to a great start. He’s turned himself into a great, great pitcher."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers' Corbin Burnes sets MLB record with strikeout streak