Matthew Boyd was fired up to get the Opening Day start for the Detroit Tigers but that fire may be part of what ended up burning him during Friday's 7-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
Boyd struggled to control his pitches right out of the gate and by the time he settled in, the damage had already been done.
After loading the bases in the bottom of the first inning, Boyd hit Reds OF Nick Castellanos to walk in the first run of the game and it was apparent that it could be a long night.
When all was said and done, Boyd pitched 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits, while walking 2 and striking out just 2 Reds batters.
Following the game, Boyd admitted that he may have been a little too hyped for the occasion and that it took him too long to adjust after his rough start.
“It was awesome,” he said. “I wanted to run through a brick wall. That feeling is great. I miss that feeling. I haven’t felt it in a while.
“It’s in those moments that you want to feed off that, you want to live in that because you don’t want to fight it, you want to welcome it and go into it. It was awesome. Man, just so happy to go out there.”
“Something’s going wrong, I can feel that and make the adjustment one pitch at a time,” he said. “There was just something wrong right in the foundation in terms of starting. I had a little mechanical tweak just how I lined up on the rubber. I didn’t make that adjust till about the third inning. …
“At that point forward it was a lot more consistent. But it was just kind of a battle in that first and second and most the first.”
Boyd says that this loss is on him but that he and his team would bounce back.
“Unfortunately this game’s on me. Starting pitcher, you come out and set the tone. I gave them a two-spot right out of the chute in a long, slow inning. Our guys fought but tonight’s on me. I’ll get better from it, and we’re going to be better coming out.”
There is no question about it, Matthew Boyd did not bring his A-game, but to be fair, the Tigers offense was equally bad, if not worse as they managed just three hits while striking out 13 times.
