If not for St. Louis Cardinals slugger Joshua Baez, Matthew Boyd would be having a heckuva second half of the season.
The Chicago Cubs veteran left-hander is scheduled to start in his home state Friday night in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the host Seattle Mariners.
Boyd was on the wrong side of history last Saturday at Wrigley Field. He gave up three homers to Baez, a record for a hitter in his major league debut.
“He just, he got the better of me,” Boyd said. “He’s a good player. There’s a reason why he’s called up. I know he had some recognition coming up, too, in terms of his status and whatnot. And he’s had a great year and hit a lot of home runs in Triple-A. I mean, he’s talented. He’s a good hitter.
“My mentality, you don’t attack anybody any differently.”
The loss was the first for Boyd (8-2, 4.02 ERA) since his opening start of the season, March 26 against visiting Washington. In between those two starts, Boyd was 8-0 with a 2.96 ERA.
Boyd, who was born in the Seattle suburb of Mercer Island and starred at Oregon State, made 10 relief appearances for the Mariners in 2022, going 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA. He’s 2-2 with a 4.62 ERA in eight career appearances against Seattle, including seven starts. He has a 2.29 ERA without a decision in seven games (two starts) at T-Mobile Park.
The Cubs have gone 12-6 this month and are five games behind first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central. Chicago has a six-game cushion atop the NL wild-card standings.
Pete Crow-Armstrong secured his second straight season of 30 homers and 30 stolen bases Monday, when he homered leading off the game and added a walk-off shot against the crosstown rival White Sox. He also went deep in the first inning the next night.
“He’s having an insane season,” teammate Alex Bregman said. “It’s pretty crazy what he’s doing. … He’s been electric for us all year. Unbelievable.”
While the Cubs had Thursday off after winning two of three games vs. the White Sox, the Mariners lost 7-4 at Milwaukee to cap a nine-game trip on which they went 4-5 while making stops in New York to face the Yankees and in Houston to meet the Astros. Seattle was outscored 65-38 on the trip, though that included a 22-0 defeat Tuesday to the Brewers.
The Mariners took two of three games against the Astros to stay in both the American League West and wild-card races.
They couldn’t overcome the Brewers on Thursday after Seattle’s George Kirby allowed six runs in the first inning.
“I just wish I could have given the team a better chance from the get-go,” he said. “A lot of things that are getting put in play right now are just finding ways to get through. So, just got to do a better job keeping guys off-balance and getting swing-and-miss.”
The Mariners are scheduled to send right-hander Emerson Hancock (7-7, 3.30 ERA) to the mound Friday before calling up phenom Kade Anderson for his MLB debut Saturday.
Hancock snapped a string of three straight losses with a 10-5 victory last Saturday at Houston in a game in which he gave up two runs on five hits over seven innings, with eight strikeouts. He’s 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA in two career starts against the Cubs.
–Field Level Media
