CHICAGO -- The baseball that Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford connected with in the fifth inning on Friday afternoon was on its way back to the mound before Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd had even finished his delivery. The pitcher had little time to react.
A fraction of a second after landing his left foot, Boyd reached up -- a combination of self-defense and an attempt to make a catch -- and got his glove in front of the 104.5 mph line drive. The veteran starter made an incredible catch, but was forced to exit Chicago’s 9-4 loss due to the resulting bruise on his left shoulder.
“He caught the ball,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “But his left shoulder took the brunt of it.”
The momentum of the hard line drive caused the glove (ball included) to slam against the front of Boyd’s left shoulder. On the play, the pitcher spun away from the comebacker and landed on his stomach, reaching out with his glove in the air to signal that he made the grab. Boyd then shuffled to his feet, backpedaling off the mound and flashing a quick thumbs-up.
After that final out of the top of the fifth, Boyd retreated to the Wrigley Field dugout and felt his shoulder tightening up over the next few minutes. With only 76 pitches on his line, Boyd was pulled from the game as a precaution. He will be monitored in the upcoming days to assess his progress.
“It just stiffened up pretty quickly, so there was just no way he could go back out there,” Counsell said. “It’s going to be a swelling issue moving forward.”
Boyd did not expect it to keep him sidelined for too long.
“More precautionary than anything,” Boyd said. “The training staff did a good job getting a lot of that inflammation out of there. I don’t foresee it being an issue.”
In his five innings of work, Boyd was charged with two runs on two hits, ending with six strikeouts and two walks in a no-decision. He surrendered a first-inning solo homer to Cal Raleigh -- one of two blasts for the Seattle catcher in the game -- but was more upset about the two walks that paved the way for a run in the fourth.
On the season, Boyd has posted a 2.84 ERA in 15 starts, striking out 79 and walking 21 in his 85 2/3 innings. The veteran left-hander has allowed two runs or fewer in five consecutive appearances since May 28, logging a 1.78 ERA in that span. Due to exiting early, Boyd missed a chance to extend his quality-start streak to five games.
“That was scary,” Cubs catcher Reese McGuire said of the liner in the fifth inning. “Because of the view, it [looked like it] was obviously going right for his head. And then when he got the glove on it, that was good to see.”
As for that pitch to Crawford, Boyd said he thinks the shortstop was prepared for the sinker after grounding out on the pitch in their previous meeting.
“I threw a pitch a little too [much in the] middle there,” Boyd said. “And probably after beating J.P. on it in the at-bat before, he was probably ready for it. The margin for error was a little tighter. But yeah, he hit it well.”