When Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd takes the Wrigley Field mound in Game 1 of the wild-card series, he’ll know what to do with the extra nerves and excitement that come with playoff stakes.
“It’s all energy,” Boyd said in a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. “You just acknowledge it for what it is, and you feed off it.”
He’s pitched in big moments in the postseason before. But this year is unique.
For the first time in Boyd’s career, he’s going to be a key member of a playoff rotation after serving as a cornerstone of the team’s success for the entire season.
The Cubs announced Monday that Boyd, who earned his first All-Star nod this year and finished the season with a 3.21 ERA in 31 starts, will start Tuesday against the Padres to kick off the Cubs’ postseason.
“He’s been our consistent, take-the-ball-every-time starter,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And you’re happy to hand the ball to a guy like that.”
The Cubs lined up their rotation in the final week of the season to give themselves a number of options. But when right-hander Cade Horton, who had been lights-out in the second half, landed on the IL with a fractured rib, Boyd looked like the clear choice.
Boyd went through eight major-league seaosn before his first taste of the postseason came in 2022.
His only playoff appearance that year came in the 16th inning of Game 3 of the AL Division Series between the Mariners and Astros. He faced three batters – including current teammate Kyle Tucker, who he walked – and recorded one out.
“It ended up being a great opportunity,” Boyd said. “Because I got to sit back and stay ready but also just take it all in: take in what everything was like, take in the emotions, the feelings that I had, watched my teammates go through it. And I think it really served me well going into last year.”
He made it back to the postseason with the Guardians in 2024. A mid-season addition, Boyd returned from Tommy John surgery to help propel Cleveland to a strong finish and division title.
From his grand return on Aug. 13, when he held the Cubs to one run in 5 ⅓ innings, through the end of the season, he posted a 2.79 ERA. Then he made two starts in the ALDS and one in the ALCS, allowing just one run across all three.
“When I was rehabbing alone and I couldn’t find a job, I knew in my heart I was going to get the chance,” Boyd said. “Just as I knew we’d get the chance this year. And that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, and it doesn’t need to.”
He’s held the belief that the Cubs were playoff-bound since signing this past offseason. And the Cubs believed, after seeing his comeback in Cleveland, that he could help them end their postseason drought.
“The cool part, as a contrast to last year, is you get to go through the battles,” he said. “From spring training, to our trip in Tokyo, to the amazing April, to the tough parts where we’re not winning like we did before.”
He listed highs and lows, from watching left-hander Justin Steele lose his season to elbow surgery, to seeing rookie Cade Horton put together a Rookie of the Year-caliber season, to bearing witness to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s “amazing year.” Boyd’s list of his teammates’ season accomplishments went on.
“I think it’s special when you get to be with someone every day, to be with the same group, and we grafted our own guys in, and you get to see the collectiveness of it,” Boyd said. “It makes the highs even more special.”
Stepping onto the field Tuesday, in the Cubs’ first playoff game since 2020, and first one with fans in the stands since 2018, is sure to be one of those highs.
He’ll have loved ones in attendance, including his wife and kids, parents, sister and her family. And on his mind will be his late grandfather John Boyd, who grew up in Chicago and was a diehard Cubs fan.
“A huge reason for me being here is really him,” Boyd said. “It’s really cool to think about how special this would be for him.”
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