Matthew Boyd couldn’t get through two innings.
The 32-year-old, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract in the offseason after pitching for the Seattle Mariners last season, walked four batters, struggled to control his pitches from the beginning of his outing and exited with one out in the second inning. He gave up six runs in the Detroit Tigers‘ 9-2 loss to the Mariners in Friday’s series opener at Comerica Park.
Boyd has a 6.47 ERA in seven starts.
“I’m very confident with how we’re going ahead,” Boyd said. “This is going to be one of my best years in the big leagues. I don’t doubt that. I said it in spring (training), and I know it right now. We’re going to go out there, drill it home this week, get back to it and get ready for the next one.”
“We’re all going to struggle,” said center fielder Riley Greene, when asked about Boyd’s performance. “I’m not really going to go into it, but we’re all going to struggle. He’s been really good for us, so we’re not too worried about it.”
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The Tigers (17-20) scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when catcher Jake Rogers tagged an up-and-in 89.8 mph fastball for a two-run home run off left-hander Marco Gonzales.
Gonzales, who lowered his ERA to 4.42 in seven starts, allowed two runs on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts across five innings. He tossed 60 of 89 pitches for strikes and generated 10 whiffs.
“He effectively changed speeds, which is what he does,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of Gonzales. “He rarely throws the same pitch back-to-back, and when he does, it’s the changeup that moves quite a bit. Probably the biggest thing he did was throw strikes with the lead. They had a six-run lead very early.”
Miguel Cabrera, playing in the 2,719th game of his career, worked a leadoff four-pitch walk to begin the fifth inning. He came around to score on the 402-foot home run. It was Rogers’ fifth homer — which leads the Tigers (ahead of Kerry Carpenter and Nick Maton with four apiece) — in 26 games this season.
The Tigers, finishing 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, scratched across two runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts against four pitchers.
There were runners on the corners with zero outs in the eighth inning, but the Tigers — trailing by five — stranded the runners. Akil Baddoo lined out to shallow center and Eric Haase grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Evergreen daze
The Mariners were not kind to their old friend.
Boyd, who grew up in the Seattle area, pitched out of the bullpen for his hometown team last season. He struggled in his latest matchup with the M’s, allowing six runs (five earned runs) on five hits and four walks with one strikeout in 1⅓ innings.
He threw 28 of 55 pitches for strikes.
“A lot of it was in my control,” Boyd said. “I fell out of rhythm. That hasn’t happened in a really long time. Why it happened, I don’t know. The adjustment I was making wasn’t enough. It’s uncharacteristic of me to spray the ball like I did around the zone. But I’ll make the adjustment.”
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Boyd started his outing with a leadoff walk to J.P. Crawford, and although he limited the damage to one run in the first inning, he couldn’t keep the Mariners from piling on in the second.
He struck Teoscar Hernandez, then walked back-to-back batters — Tom Murphy and AJ Pollock — before Jose Caballero’s single loaded the bases. Crawford put the Mariners ahead, 2-0, with an infield single.
Second baseman Jonathan Schoop couldn’t field the ball cleanly, but if he would have picked it out of the dirt, he likely would have turned an inning-ending double play. Crawford hit the ball with a 106.5 mph exit velocity.
“I think the inning was created by the walks,” Hinch said. “You got to try to find some miracle to get out of it. They put the ball in play. They drew their walks. They hit a couple bullets. But that’s a tough play.”
After that, Boyd walked Ty France with the bases loaded.
Julio Rodríguez then hit a two-run single to left-center, extending the Mariners’ lead to 5-0 and chasing Boyd from his seventh start. The Mariners took a 6-0 advantage when Jarred Kelenic grounded into a force play with right-handed reliever Mason Englert on the mound.
The sixth run scored on Javier Báez’s throwing error on the second half of an unsuccessful double play attempt.
Boyd recorded nine whiffs and five called strikes.
“I started out a little slow in the delivery, and I tried to speed it up a little bit, and I overcorrected to be a little fast,” Boyd said. “I was only hitting on one out of three pitches. That hasn’t happened in a very long time.”
Taxing the bullpen
The Tigers were forced to use five relievers: Englert, right-hander Will Vest, left-hander Tyler Holton, righty José Cisnero and lefty Tyler Alexander. Englert and Holton led the bullpen with 2⅔ and 1⅔ innings, respectively.
Alexander pitched the final two innings.
“For the most part, the bullpen came in and did their part,” Hinch said. “When you got to put together that many outs, it’s tough. We were protected with the off day (Thursday) and the off day on Monday, so I could be pretty liberal with the usage and get guys in the game.”
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The Mariners scored their seventh run off Cisnero — charged to Holton — in the seventh inning. Rodríguez, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year, hit a 347-foot home run off Alexander’s changeup for a 9-2 lead in the ninth inning.
The ball snuck inside the right-field foul pole.
It was Rodríguez’s seventh homer of the season.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.