It’s no longer a surprise when Matthew Boyd puts up zeroes on a scorecard.
That’s just what he’s done all year — it’s why he was named a first-time All-Star, and it’s why he’s been the machine behind the Cubs’ success this season.
[Cubs takeaways: What we learned as Matthew Boyd bounces Yankees in win]
The Cubs entered Saturday’s game against the New York Yankees coming off an 11-0 rout at the hands of the Bronx Bombers the night before. The loss whittled the Cubs’ lead in the NL Central to just one game as the Milwaukee Brewers continue to surge at the right time.
Enter Boyd, whose job was to simply pick up where he left off in his last scoreless start against the St. Louis Cardinals.
And boy, did he ever.
Boyd was lights-out, throwing eight shutout innings while allowing just four hits and striking out six. Behind him, the Cubs jumped on Yankees ace Max Fried for four runs in three innings to give Boyd the insurance he needed to go the distance.
“It was a masterful performance,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters after his team’s 5-2 win. “(The Yankees are) a very good offensive team … He kept it really quiet. They were playing from behind in the count the whole game.”
The outing was the deepest Boyd’s gone in a game this season, and he only threw 85 pitches. A complete game shutout was on the cards for the Cubs’ southpaw but Counsell said he was “not really” tempted to send Boyd back out for the ninth inning.
“I think we’ve got to keep the big picture in mind here,” Counsell told reporters. “He’s had a heck of a first half, he’s thrown a ton of innings, so we’ll get him fresh for the second half.”
Saturday’s win capped off a first half for Boyd that has seen him post a 2.34 ERA — a number third-best in the NL and seventh-best in MLB — along with a 10-3 record.
Those numbers earned Boyd a first-ever All-Star bid in his 11 MLB seasons. He won’t get to pitch in the Midsummer Classic for the same reason as the one behind his exit from the game on Saturday, but the Cubs are looking way ahead.
[MORE: Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd won’t pitch for NL in 2025 MLB All-Star Game]
Boyd has already thrown 111.2 innings this season. In the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined, he logged 110.2. For a player whose workload has been limited at the expense of Tommy John surgery, the Cubs wouldn’t want to risk undoing all the work Boyd has put in to get to where he is now.
“I’m always going until Craig tells me no,” Boyd told reporters of the decision to pull him after the eighth. “It’s his job to think of the big picture … I always want to be out there as long as I can, but (I have) a lot of trust in him.”
That ‘big picture’ that Boyd echoed of Counsell’s words is clear. The Cubs, who sit in first place in the NL Central more than midway through the season, are vying for a playoff berth for the first time in five years. Boyd is one of the players who has spearheaded that surge — and the Cubs will want him to be as healthy as possible for a postseason push.
“We have a great ball club. We have guys that have been there before, guys that know what it takes to get there,” Boyd told reporters. “I still think we have our best baseball ahead of us as a ball club. We’re still getting ready to hit our stride, and that’s saying something.”
Like Boyd’s words for his team, Counsell had equal praise for what his ace has done this season and what he’ll continue to accomplish.
“I know we’ve got a long way to go, and he’s got a lot of innings left to pitch,” Counsell said. “But there are no signs right now of him slowing down.”