SEATTLE — Spotted a three-run lead before he had thrown a pitch Saturday night, the cushion the Chicago Cubs offense supplied Matthew Boyd should have been enough to keep the Seattle Mariners in check.
Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep off Mariners starter Emerson Hancock on the ninth pitch of the at-bat for his third leadoff homer in his last four games and set a career high with his 32nd long ball. Alex Bregman added to it with a two-run blast, and the Cubs got off to a hot start.
Boyd, though, has struggled to keep the ball in the park lately. The veteran surrendered only six home runs in his first 12 starts, but August has played out much differently. Boyd handed back the lead nearly immediately. Cal Raleigh delivered the big blow with a game-tying three-run home run in the second inning, followed by Brendan Donovan’s go-ahead RBI single three batters later, aided by a controversial balk call that led to manager Craig Counsell being ejected.
Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, right, celebrates with third-base coach Quintin Berry after hitting a solo home run to tie the game in the ninth inning against the Mariners on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Seattle. (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
The Cubs came back to tie the game late behind solo home runs from Ian Happ and Bregman in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. But Ryan Zeferjahn couldn’t toss a clean frame in extras. The Mariners walked them off on Leo Rivas’ two-out single to center field to hand the Cubs a 6-5 loss in 10 innings.
The Cubs (74-55) finished an ugly 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. They had won 12 straight when hitting four home runs or more in a game. Saturday marked their first loss when slugging that many homers since June 25, 2025, also against the Mariners.
Boyd’s first-pitch high fastball to Raleigh didn’t fool the Mariners catcher despite his immense struggles this year. The switch-hitting Raleigh came into the game batting .140 with a .272 slugging percentage versus lefties this year. Raleigh’s 107.2-mph exit velocity on the home run was his hardest-hit home run from the right side of the plate this season.
“Went to go attack Cal and he was ready,” Boyd said. “He jumped on the heater. Heaters up in the zone generally tend to be good off of him and he had a good game plan. Hats off to him. I hate that saying that again, but in hindsight maybe I should have gone to a different pitch. I knew he was going to be aggressive, but he got to the pitch and hit it and that was the difference.”
The multirun home runs Boyd has been giving up lately are creating blemishes among his otherwise good stuff. Through four August starts, Boyd has been tagged for eight home runs — including two three-run homers and three two-run homers — while walking nine and striking out 11 in 25 innings.
“Those are big pitches, and they put a big number on the board, and those are tough to come back from,” Counsell said. “You don’t win those games very much, so that was kind of the story of the game. He pitched well. He made a bad pitch, and he paid for it.”
Boyd’s pickoff move has been a weapon for the lefty the last two years.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell reacts from the dugout after starter Matthew Boyd was called for a balk in the fifth inning against the Mariners on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Seattle. Counsell was ejected from the game, and the Cubs lost 6-5 in 10 innings. (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
He has recorded four this season after his 11 pickoffs last year set a franchise record and were the most in the majors since Clayton Kershaw also had 11 in 2012. A throwing error by shortstop Nico Hoerner to open the fifth had Boyd keeping an eye on the base runner, Brock Rodden. Boyd made his typical pickoff move toward first, with Rodden successfully making it back to first. However, plate umpire Brennan Miller called a balk on Boyd, sending Rodden to second base.
Donovan grounded out to advance Rodden to third, and the next batter, Randy Arozarena, drove him in with a soft single to center to extend Mariners’ lead to 5-3. Boyd called the balk ruling “unfortunate.”
“He thought that I was going to the plate,” Boyd said. “It’s the same move I’ve done. First time that move’s been called a balk since 2019 when I think Joe West called it from third base. I mean, any run can make a difference in a game. That’s a tight game, right? And obviously I would have loved to be better.”
Counsell remained frustrated by the balk call after the inning ending. As Boyd chatted with Miller near the Cubs dugout for further explanation, Counsell, who turned 56 on Saturday, got tossed for the fifth time this year, tying his most ejections in a single season during his 12-year managerial career.
“It hasn’t been called a balk, and he hasn’t been called for a balk in seven years, one where it wasn’t a pickoff move” Counsell said. “It’s a situation where the umpire got fooled and made up a call because he got fooled. It’s not a balk, flat out. No other umpire’s calling that a balk.”
The Cubs offense had plenty of chances to bail out Boyd and the balk call. But aside from Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff home run and Bregman’s multihomer game as part of a three-hit night, the Cubs squandered too many opportunities. Seiya Suzuki struck out three times, most notably to end the eighth with the bases loaded after the Mariners intentionally walked Crow-Armstrong.
“We battled offensively, had a lot of traffic, but at the end of the day didn’t do enough tonight,” Bregman said. “Come back tomorrow, get after it.”