Matthew Boyd gave up eight hits in six innings in his previous start and on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen tagged him for a first-inning home run.
Boyd had enough of that.
The Chicago Cubs lefty retired the next 14 in a row. The 15th hitter, Tommy Pham, walked to lead off the sixth, and Boyd promptly picked him off first. The Cubs went on to a 2-1 win in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 39,554.
“You just keep pitching,” Boyd said of his approach after the home run. “Whether it’s a home run or a walk or even a strikeout or something good.
“You just go out and keep doing what you expect of yourself when the ball is in your hand. McCutchen is a real good hitter. I made a mistake and he was ready for it.”
Added Cubs manager Craig Counsell: “The second guy in the game hits a home run and then he pitched really, really well. Matt continues to do an excellent job.”
Dansby Swanson, who was hitting .193 against left-handed pitchers, hit a two-out solo home run against Pirates southpaw reliever Ryan Borucki to give the National League Central-leading Cubs (43-28) what turned out to be the winning run. Daniel Palencia notched his sixth save, and the bullpen lowered its ERA to 0.90 in the last 28 games.
Boyd (6-3, 2.79 ERA) came up with his third pickoff in as many games and has six for the season. Rick Sutcliffe (1985) and Bill Hands (1970) are the only other pitchers in Cubs history to pick off runners in three straight games.
Boyd, who faced just 19 batters in six innings, said he developed the move at age 9 when Bellevue College coach Mark Yoshino taught it to him at a camp, and he hasn’t changed it much since.
“Mark joked that if you don’t like someone, you hit him and then pick him off,” Boyd said. “I’m not going to try that at the big-league level.
“But it (the pickoff) is something I’ve always had in my career ever since I was little.”
Counsell appreciates the pickoffs as well as Boyd dominating after the McCutchen home run.
“His last outing was against a team that decided to be aggressive,” Counsell said of the Philadelphia Phillies. “They made a decision on trying to be aggressive because in a previous start or two, he threw a lot of first-pitch strikes.
“That’s just adjusting as a starter from game to game, not falling into a pattern. … We’re always keeping an eye on it.”
The Pirates (29-43) have played the Cubs tight in this four-game series as the Cubs won 3-2 Thursday and lost 2-1 Friday in 10 innings.
Ian Happ’s sacrifice fly in the third inning brought home Nico Hoerner to tie Saturday’s tight game.
Swanson was happy he could be a difference-maker in the game after belting his 13th home run of the season.
“My first couple of at-bats I was missing some good pitches, which can be frustrating in its own right,” Swanson said. “It was a big swing in a big situation.”
It was the second day in a row a young Pirates starter was able to confound the vaunted Cubs offense. Paul Skenes, 23, blanked the Cubs on four hits with five strikeouts in five innings Friday. On Saturday, Mike Burrows, 25, gave up one run on five hits with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in his first appearance against the Cubs.
The Cubs have scored just eight runs in their last four games and hope to snap out of that Sunday when they face Mitch Keller, who comes in with a 1-9 record and a 4.15 ERA.
But as long as they are playing close, low-scoring games, they want to come out on top.
“That’s part of the schedule,” Counsell said. “You expect to play close games. You are not going to play 8-3 games every day. The bullpen, the defense, the baserunning, you count on those things. You have different clubs in your bag, so to speak.”
Reliever Drew Pomeranz pitched a scoreless eight but felt back tightness, and the Cubs will monitor him.
Injury updates
Left-hander Shota Imanaga threw four innings in an Arizona Complex League game and gave up three hits and struck out four in his second appearance since going on the injured list May 5 with a left hamstring strain. The Cubs will see how he responds to Saturday’s outing before drawing up a game plan for his next rehab appearance.
“He has to get his arm in game shape,” Counsell said. “He needs mound time. He needs conditions of the game. He needs to ramp up for now and health-wise for the future.
“The amount of down time and out-of-game competition — you have to follow certain steps because he missed too much time and game action.”
Reliever Porter Hodge threw 14 pitches in a scoreless inning in a rehab assignment for Iowa on Friday, and Cubs officials said he felt good. Counsell said Hodge, on the injured list since May 18 with a left oblique strain, is in line for another appearance Tuesday.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune
