With scouts watching, homers hurt Boyd again

CLEVELAND -- The scouting report on Matthew Boyd doesn’t include many displays of frustration during an outing. As the Tigers left-hander settled into the dugout after his sixth and final inning on Thursday, he took a quick swipe at the bench. Jose Ramirez’s go-ahead two-run homer that inning went out in a hurry, but the emotion over it lingered.

It wasn’t a statement about the trade market. Boyd wasn't concerned what it meant to interested contenders weighing whether to make an offer on the left-hander. He cared what it meant on the scoreboard for his current team, desperate for a win.

“Probably the Ramirez one is the one that maybe I could've done something a little different on,” Boyd said after the 6-3 loss to the Indians. “But I executed the pitch I wanted to throw, and I threw it. And he got it. That was the difference in the game tonight.”

• Box score

Though scouts flocked to Progressive Field to see Boyd and Trevor Bauer in a duel of potential Trade Deadline acquisitions, they ended up seeing a battle of home runs, two off each starter accounting for all but two runs in the game. While Niko Goodrum’s second-inning solo shot and Harold Castro’s two-run homer in the third gave Detroit a brief lead off Bauer, two-run homers by Ramirez and Jordan Luplow sent the Tigers to a four-game series sweep.

Take away the homers, and Boyd looked every bit the front-line pitcher the Tigers believe should carry a premium in a market stocked with quality starters. The quandary teams face with Boyd is how to weigh the home runs, even while homer rates are up around the Majors.

Boyd has racked up 42 strikeouts over 25 1/3 innings in his past four starts, but he has given up 17 runs in that stretch, including seven homers accounting for 11 runs. Add Boyd’s June 21 start here against the Indians, and he has yielded 10 home runs over 31 1/3 innings in his past five.

“I think I was in control today. Unfortunately, I came out on the other end of the box score,” Boyd said. “That's what matters, but I measure success in a different way.

“Sometimes they hit home runs. This year they've done it across the league a little more frequently. That's no excuse. That's the game we play. That's just what happened tonight. It was the difference in the game; I'm not naive in that sense. I'm going to continue to get better.”

No pitcher in Tigers history has racked up double-digit strikeouts in four consecutive starts, but Boyd came close, fanning eight. He held All-Star Francisco Lindor and Tigers killer Oscar Mercado hitless with three strikeouts combined, and he fanned Roberto Perez three times in as many at-bats. He came close to two more strikeouts on Luplow, and he ended up needing them for more than a milestone.

Boyd had an 0-2 count on Luplow, a pitch away from ending the opening inning with a runner stranded, and went to his high fastball, a pitch that had retired Luplow in past meetings. The 93 mph heater caught just enough of the top of the strike zone for Luplow to connect, sending it over the high left-field wall.

Boyd retired 11 in a row after Luplow’s homer, including five strikeouts, before back-to-back singles and a Tyler Naquin sacrifice fly tied the game in the fifth. Again, Boyd regathered. He was a pitch away from ending the sixth with the game tied, again with an 0-2 count on Luplow.

Boyd went back to the high fastball but put it well out of the strike zone. His 1-2 fastball was over the plate for Luplow to line into center for a single. That extended the inning for Ramirez and the 1-1 fastball Boyd lamented. It was inside, but maybe not far enough, allowing Ramirez to turn on it and drive it into the left-field bleachers.

“I threw it right where I wanted to, exactly to the game plan,” Boyd said. “It's the pitch that he popped up in the first inning. He hit it this time.”

Boyd (6-8) struck out at least eight batters without a walk for the fourth time in his past eight starts, but with scouts from the Rays, Dodgers, Yankees, Braves and Reds among those in attendance, the damage left something to ponder: Was it a reflection on Boyd, or a reflection on the game in general this season?

“He’s been throwing the ball great,” catcher Bobby Wilson said. “It just seems like it’s been one or two pitches that kind of does him in. … We just got done talking, and he feels like his last five starts have been his best five starts. You hate losing, but you love hearing that from your guy.”

Though there’s no shortage of contending teams interested in Boyd, finding a team with the impact hitting prospects to get a deal done -- and the willingness to deal them -- is another matter. With three more years of team control left on Boyd's contract, the Tigers are holding fast to their high asking prices.

“They're asking a lot,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “That was the plan all along, that they weren't going to just trade him for somebody that might be three to four years [away]. We have plenty of those guys. [We want] Major League talent.”

There’s an increasing sense that the Tigers will hold onto Boyd past the July 31 Trade Deadline. While recent history suggests the market won’t be much different for him in the offseason, the Tigers could take the chance. Or they could keep Boyd around into next season, when his presence could help the crop of highly touted pitching prospects on their way up.

“If we can load up on position players or something like that, then I think [general manager Al Avila] would do it,” Gardenhire said. “But it's gonna have to be good.”