Chicago Cubs at Baltimore Orioles

Gunnar Henderson tried to stop his swing, but it was too late. The curveball that Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd sent spinning across the zone and tumbling low and outside did its job, getting the Orioles' shortstop to offer feebly for a strikeout to end the third inning on Tuesday night. That was one snapshot of a vintage Boyd outing at Camden Yards. “He was amazing,” Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya said. “He was dialed in since pitch one. He dominated the zone and the other team had no chance against him.” Boyd gave the Cubs six scoreless innings in a 5-2 victory over the Orioles in his third start since returning from the injured list. The veteran lefty has been sidelined twice this season -- first in April due to a left biceps strain and then in May when a fluke left knee injury necessitated surgery \-\- limiting him to only eight outings overall. The version of Boyd who took the hill in Baltimore looked very much like the one who last season made the All-Star team, logged his most innings (179 2/3) and starts (31) since 2019, and took the ball three times in the postseason. If the 35-year-old can indeed return to that form in the coming months, that would be a huge development for a Chicago rotation that has been riddled with injuries. In that regard, Tuesday was a big step forward. “It’s just been a steady progression,” Boyd said. “You can’t replicate game speed up here, so when you get into those situations, different things reveal themselves. You just continue to work on them. That was the case with the last few starts, the last one and today. There’s things to work on that come out of that, too. But it was a good game.” The six innings were the most in an outing for Boyd since May 3 -- shortly before the meniscectomy surgery on May 7 for his knee. This marked the lefty’s first time logging at least six scoreless frames since Aug. 2 last season, when he gave the North Siders seven scoreless against, as it happens, the Orioles.