A promising start unraveled quickly for Matthew Boyd. The Cubs opener saw a costly sixth-inning surge sink Chicago's hopes.
The Chicago Cubs will want to quickly forget about their Opening Day performance.
The Cubs dropped the first game of the season to the Washington Nationals by a score of 10-4 on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Nationals’ six-run fourth inning was the difference in this game.
It was an unusual outing for Matthew Boyd, who was in control on the mound across the first three innings. He struck out seven of the first 10 batters he faced and only gave up a solo homer to Joey Wiemer in the second inning.
However, everything unraveled for him in the fourth inning. He allowed the first five batters in the inning to reach base before he departed with two outs. Ben Brown then came in and gave up a two-run homer to Jacob Young.
Before things went awry in the fourth inning, Boyd actually looked sharp in his first start of the season. He induced 20 whiffs and had an additional eight called strikes. His seven strikeouts through three innings were also encouraging to see.
Boyd’s 20 swings-and-misses were his most in a Cubs uniform and his most whiffs in a start since August 3, 2019. While the results weren’t necessarily there, seeing his whiff numbers up is a positive. The southpaw allowed six runs on six hits with seven strikeouts across 3 ⅔ innings.
Another pitcher who didn’t necessarily show up on Opening Day was Brown. He relieved Boyd in the fourth inning and gave up two runs across 3 ⅓ innings. The right-hander only had three whiffs in the game.
On the offensive side, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong did most of the heavy lifting. Busch went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, one RBI, and one walk, while Crow-Armstrong went 2-for-5 with two RBI and two strikeouts.
The rest of Chicago’s lineup went 3-for-25 at the plate. Alex Bregman went 1-for-4 with one walk in his Cubs debut, and Moises Ballesteros went 0-for-3 with one walk in his first career Opening Day start.
Despite the Opening Day loss, the Cubs were able to lock down one of their perennial players shortly after Thursday’s game. Nico Hoerner reportedly agreed to a six-year extension to remain in Chicago for the foreseeable future.
The Cubs will be back in action on Saturday after an off day on Friday. Cade Horton will draw the start for the North Siders opposite Nationals starter Miles Mikolas.