Matthew Boyd struggles in Cubs' 10-4 loss to Nationals on Opening Day
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Mahaney, Harris, and Grody. Could you imagine Lovie Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing and saying bleep the Packers? Come on, guys. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score.
It's a swing and a miss. Strike three and this ball game is over. A very disappointing opening day for the Chicago Cubs as the Washington Nationals win by a score of 10-4.
That was the voice of Pat Hughes. He and Ron Coomer were on the call after the Cubs and White Sox fall by a final of 10-4 for the Cubs and 14-2. in Milwaukee. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody. I'm 104.3 The Score. And we knew that you know that you're going to have to work out some things. I think I thought it was going to be Matt Shaw and right field working out some things. And he actually made a pretty good catch to start that I was impressed with. I did not think that I would see Matthew Boyd just get teed up the way he did. Nationals with a six run fourth inning. That's what ended up chasing him from the game. He was out after three and two thirds. Six hits.
What were the highlights of the Cubs' Opening Day performance?
All six runs earned, given up, one walk, seven strikeouts. And then it was Ben Brown who we saw. I think he's still working through stuff. And the Nationals are 1-0. Cubs undefeated season I don't think is going to happen this year.
Are you saying 162-0 is off the table for the Cubs but not the Nationals? I think that's what you just said.
I think so, yes.
No, it's cool, though, because, one, it is one game. And while I do have some concerns about, obviously, the way Matthew Boyd looked and that the Nationals, credit to them, they had a pretty good game plan. They were like, this guy's going to throw strikes. We are going to swing at everything. And they swung and missed it a lot. Like they were out here missing a lot early. But when they got him, they got him and he couldn't get up. He couldn't get off the mat.
Well, and that's the problem is a guy who you expect. I think we all knew this isn't the Cubs' best starting pitcher. We know that. This was given out of respect. It was given out of, I think, appreciation for what Shaw's season was last year or Matthew Boyd's season was last year where he was an all-star. He gets the respect of the World Baseball Classic team as well. He was a huge part of last year, which we saw. It was his second high in total in career innings pitched only to 2019, which was his career best season. It was no doubt a renaissance for Matthew Boyd. We'd also seen him adjust throughout the course of the year where he would adjust mid-game. He would adjust after a second time through the order.
And unfortunately for the Cubs, that's just not what happened. And we see early on there was a home run given up. I understand the wind is going to carry a lot of balls yesterday. It also killed many. Ian Happ hit one that I think everybody thought was out of the ballpark. And then it definitely hit the air and then just died in front of left field.
Well short of the warning track.
But when you saw it and you heard it, you knew in a normal circumstance that it was out. But that wasn't the case for Matthew Boyd. I think the weather helped him early. And I think it kept some of the contact not scoring and not as powerful. And then unfortunately, in that fourth inning, things just went from bad to worse.
11 of his outs were recorded by strikeout. He had seven strikeouts in that three and two-thirds.
How did Matthew Boyd perform against the Nationals?
And it's not good when on opening day you give up more runs than you gave up in any single start in 2025. These are the bad things. That being said... The reason the Nationals are so bad isn't because of their offense. It's because their pitching's terrible. It's because they had the worst bullpen in all of baseball last year. And say what you want about Matthew Boyd not pitching well and Ben Brown not looking great in his first appearance in 2026. Layla, to me... the overarching story here and the one that's more concerning than what matthew boyd looked like for me personally is the fact that there were a bunch of games played yesterday nobody had more at bats with runners in scoring position than your chicago cubs who had 19 at bats with runners in scoring position they had four hits and only one of those hits was for an extra base hit and that's not necessarily why they lost the game but that's why the game wasn't
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:18
2
What were the highlights of the Cubs' Opening Day performance?
1:18–3:37
3
How did Matthew Boyd perform against the Nationals?
3:37–6:23
4
What were the major issues with the Cubs' pitching strategy?
6:23–13:20
5
How did the weather impact the game for both teams?
13:20–14:38
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Rahimi & Grote Show
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