So, it turns out the Cubs are no slouches after all. And though it’s their offense that’s supposed to be a team strength, today the Most Cub-Like Player had to have been the starter, Matthew Boyd. The lefty hounded the Orioles all night, the way you thought a crafty lefty might. Through six innings, Baltimore had no runs and just three hits—a single apiece by Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso—off the 2025 All-Star, who was mixing up speeds and locations. That’s no way to win a ballgame.
You can’t be too mad at a Shane Baz quality start (six innings, three runs) against MLB’s second-best offense. But his team gave him no help at all.
Rain delayed first pitch by an hour, so we kicked off bravely at the pretty regular hour of 7:30 ET. It didn’t appear to faze the Orioles starter, Baz, who confronted the Cubs with confidence, attacking the zone.
For two innings it kinda worked! Baz had a strong first inning, striking out the mighty Pete Crow-Armstrong with high heat before retiring Alex Bregman and Michael Busch on two quick flyouts. In the second, he allowed lots of noisy contact, including to outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who skied a ball deep to center, 383 feet away, 106 mph off the bat.
Despite keeping things scoreless, so many hard hits augured poorly for Baz in the third. Considering, it could have gone worse. With two outs, Miguel Amaya walked and Crow-Armstrong singled to center before Alex Bregman got a hanging Baz knuckle curve and singled home the Cubs’ first run. A concerned O’s pitching staff checked on Baz, but the damage wouldn’t go any further. It took a popout with the bases loaded to get Baz out of trouble, though.
The knuckle curveball featured prominently in Baz’s offerings tonight, but it proved vulnerable in a two-run Chicago fifth. Baz allowed three straight hits, including Crow-Armstrong’s RBI single. Then Bregman grounded into a forceout, scoring the catcher Amaya and making it a 3-0 Chicago game.
All of this would have been fine, like I said, except that Matthew Boyd was hounding the Orioles, who’d managed little more than offensive drips and drabs. Through five innings, they had just three hits off the 2025 All-Star, who was mixing up speeds and locations—you know, just what you’d expect.
The Birds had some baserunners, at least one in each of the first five innings. I still wouldn’t say they made the Chicago starter really sweat. In the first inning, Gunnar Henderson singled to right with two outs. No rally. Coby Mayo walked to start the second, but he was stranded. In the third, Adley singled and got no further. The fourth bid well for the home team, as Pete Alonso hit a leadoff rocket at 111.9 mph and Coby Mayo got hit by a pitch. But, whaddya know, then Matthew Boyd went and struck out the side in order. Thanks for spotting us two baserunners, Matthew Boyd (😞).
Both starters got lifted after six innings, Baz on 100 pitches, Boyd on 93. The move didn’t pay off for either club, but the O’s would have it worse (that is, because they lost).
O’s reliever Anthony Nunez got hit up pretty quickly. The right hander tossed a pair of fastballs down the middle that ended up a single for catcher Amaya and a Bregman double. A sac fly by Michael Busch would stretch the Cubs’ lead to a deflating 4-0.
True, it felt less deflating after a seventh inning where the O’s chose to score a pair of runs against a rickety Cubs bullpen featuring lefty Ryan Rolison and old Orioles friend Jacob Webb (so that’s where he ended up!). It started with Samuel Basallo in the six spot hitting an infield single. Blaze Alexander followed with an inside-out swing, a single of his own. (“An Alexanderian swing,” said a MASN booth of Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald. What a luxury these guys are.) Two strikeouts in a row by pinch-hitters Tyler O’Neil and Leody Taveras threatened to douse the flames. But with two outs, Taylor Ward walked and Adley delivered the Orioles’ first hit of the night with RISP, a 108-mph rocket to the outfield. Basallo and Blaze Alexander scored fairly easily, especially when the Cubs’ Suzuki airmailed the throw from right field.
Gunnar struck out, and there would be no more rallying. Then, alas, 4-2 became 5-2 the next inning. Maybe Craig Albernaz was wrong to try and extend Anthony Nunez for a second inning. The world may never know, but Cubs second baseman Hico Hoerner golfed a single to the outfield, stole second, and scored when Dansby Swanson, on some kind of a run (30 RBI in his last 15 games), served a Nunez breaking ball into the opposite field to make it 5-2 Chicago. Not much hard contact off Nunez. “A dying quail,” the MASN booth called it. A buzzkill, I call it.
With Nick Raquet on for the O’s in the ninth, the broadcast cut to a small but hardy “Tarps Off” section of shirtless, dancing men in the upper deck. I admired their commitment, because there wasn’t much on the field to get excited about. It would be cool if the Orioles could hit lefties a little better.
Onto better things tomorrow? Dean Kremer (1-1, 3.18 ERA, 20 K) takes on Chicago’s Colin Rea (6-5, 4.74 ERA, 68 K). At least it’s a battle of right handers.
