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.