Boyd's Game 1 unravels from first pitch on lefty's uncharacteristic night

SAN DIEGO -- All the information that Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd consumed and studied leading up to Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series pointed to a probable outcome with Fernando Tatis Jr. leading off for the Padres. Tatis was going to swing.

Boyd kept that in mind when he took the mound at Petco Park on Tuesday night. He and Cubs catcher Carson Kelly decided to turn to the veteran lefty’s changeup. It is a pitch he throws often -- second only to his fastball -- but Boyd rarely fires it on the first pitch. In fact, he had not done so in nearly two years.

“I knew he was going to swing,” Boyd said. “The numbers say he’s going to swing.”

Tatis swung and the momentum followed. The baseball he launched soared just out of the reach of center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s leaping attempt at the wall. It put the Petco Park crowd into a frenzy and was the first blow in a series of blows that dealt the Cubs an 8-0 loss to open this best-of-three series.

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With the highest-scoring offense and best defense in the Majors, the North Siders did not experience many lopsided nights like this one during the season. Padres righty Michael King carried a no-hitter into the seventh. Boyd allowed three home runs -- each off his changeup.

And Chicago’s late-season slide in the Wild Card race now has the club in must-win mode.

“All phases of the game did not go well,” Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman said. “So, you flush it. Turn the page. You’ve got to this time of year. I’ve got all the confidence in the world this group can bounce back.”

Around the All-Star break, Bregman told his teammates that the ups and downs this season had helped them become “calloused” in the face of adversity. This will be the latest test in a year full of them for the Cubs, who had cracks form in their pitching staff through both injuries and other issues, especially down the stretch.

One trouble area was allowing home runs: The Cubs’ 231 surrendered were the most in the NL this season. Boyd, however, was relatively strong in that department. The lefty yielded 15 homers in his 22 starts, giving up at least two in a game just three times. Boyd allowed zero homers in September. He gave up just two in his final seven turns of the season.

In that span of four pitches on Tuesday night, Boyd allowed two.

“They took some really good swings on hittable pitches,” Kelly said. “They executed. They’ve been playing really good baseball to end the year. They came out swinging and ready to roll.”

The Padres swung at 10 of Boyd’s 11 pitches in the first inning. Tatis got things going with his first-pitch homer off a changeup that was up and caught too much of the zone. The Padres star was asked if he was hunting for a changeup, even though Boyd had not started a game with that pitch since Game 3 of the American League Championship Series with Cleveland in 2024 (he had 56 outings between then and Tuesday night).

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“I did not, especially first pitch of the game, that would be really odd,” Tatis said. “We were ready to attack in the strike zone, and he left me a good pitch right there. And the rest is history.”

Two batters later, Manny Machado belted an 0-1 changeup -- this time it was lower and on the edge of the zone -- into the stands in left field. Later in the fourth inning, Xander Bogaerts ended a battle with Boyd by pulling a full-count changeup for a homer down the left-field line.

Boyd had never given up a home run off a changeup in any of his previous postseason outings in his career. Tuesday also marked the first game of his 12-year Major League career, regular season or postseason, in which Boyd allowed three or more home runs on his changeup.

“It’s a pitch that’s good for me. I use it a lot,” Boyd said. “If they’re looking for it, it doesn’t mean you can’t throw it. You’ve just got to be sharper with it. It could’ve been better. That’s just really what it comes down to.”

Boyd did not look like himself, and the Cubs looked out of sorts overall in the raucous environment.

“They had a lot to cheer about tonight,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And we didn't give them anything to be quiet about.”

Counsell lifted Boyd after he allowed four runs in four innings, while King cruised on the other side for San Diego.

Crow-Armstrong and Bregman ended the season as two of baseball’s hottest hitters, but King and the Padres bullpen held them to an 0-for-7 showing that included six strikeouts. By the time the Cubs finally recorded a hit -- Nico Hoerner legged out an infield single in the seventh -- they were already in a 7-0 hole.

The task for the Cubs now is to not let that feeling linger into Wednesday's Game 2.

“We’ve got to come in tomorrow and do our thing,” Kelly said. “This one leaves a little sour taste in your mouth, but I have this saying, ‘We shower well.’ Once you go take a shower, it’s over, and you move to the next day. That’s what we’re going to do.”