Boyd K's 9, bolsters case for All-Star nod

ATLANTA -- What started out as a fifth-inning mound visit from catcher Grayson Greiner eventually included the Tigers' infield and pitching coach Rick Anderson. Matthew Boyd was on the mound doing much of the talking about the man coming up to bat, Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson, who had homered his previous time up.

“Grayson came out to talk about how I wanted to approach him,” Boyd said. “Grayson said, ‘We had a base open. How do we want to pitch him?’ And then Andy came out and said the same thing.”

Boyd felt he could get Swanson if he could execute his slider, a pitch Swanson shrugged off his first at-bat. The way Boyd pitched Sunday, he earned that right. This was his game, at least at that point.

“Boyd knows what he’s doing out there,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We trust him as much as any pitcher on our team.”

The 7-4 loss to the Braves at SunTrust Park was a no-decision for Boyd, the outcome ultimately decided by a sloppy eighth inning after he left. Still, it reinforced why the left-hander means so much to this team. He entered Sunday leading American League pitchers in Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs. He ended it ranked fourth in the American League in strikeouts behind Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Chris Sale, as well as the third-best strikeout-to-walk ratio. Add it up, and Boyd has an overwhelming case to be the Tigers’ representative at next month’s All-Star Game in Cleveland.

On a day when the Tigers committed three errors and arguably had another, their best defense was the Boyd fastball up and in to Atlanta’s right-handed batters. He used it to strike out the middle of the Braves' lineup in order after Ronald Acuna Jr.'s infield single leading off the first, topping out at 95 mph to fan Josh Donaldson to end the inning, and for an Austin Riley strikeout after Brandon Dixon’s error put Donaldson on to lead off the fourth.

Boyd struck out half of the Braves' batters he faced for the first four innings, eight out of 16. Of the eight to put the ball in play, four reached base safely, one on Dixon’s error and another on the leadoff grounder to third that could’ve been called an error.

Boyd added another strikeout, sending down Tyler Flowers on sliders to lead off the fifth, before ex-Tiger Matt Joyce’s pinch-hit double left Boyd with a decision.

He couldn’t get Swanson to bite on sliders after an 0-2 count in his previous at-bat, and he paid for it when Swanson jumped on a fastball that wandered over the plate for a two-run home run that ended Boyd’s 14-inning scoreless streak. Still, Boyd didn’t want to give in to Swanson after a 3-0 count in the fifth, despite having struck out Freddie Freeman twice.

“I knew I had the lefty on deck in Freeman, who had struck out twice before,” Boyd said. “That’s on me. I knew I had a base open and probably maybe got a little too aggressive. I knew I wanted to go heater in on the hands after going four offspeeds in a row. If I missed, I’d miss up and out of the zone. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I just didn’t do it.”

Boyd missed with the fastball, again over the plate, which Swanson bounced just out of Dixon’s reach and down the left-field line for an RBI double.

“That’s Boyd’s pitch, the fastball up and in to righties,” Greiner said. “It’s a situation where it got the plate a little bit.”

Coming off a 30-pitch top of the fifth inning in which the Tigers loaded the bases on Julio Teheran and came away scoreless, the add-on tally was a body blow. Yet Boyd’s pitching, better than the line, kept the Tigers in the game until back-to-back home runs by Greiner and JaCoby Jones brought the Tigers back to life in a 3-3 game.

“These guys are pretty fun to be in the dugout with them,” Gardenhire said. “It was pretty dull around there for a few innings, but all it takes is one hit and everybody gets up and gets going. We score a run and everybody’s patting each other, and it’s fun. And that’s what I like about these guys. They won’t just roll over. They keep getting after it, and I’m proud of them for that.”

It’s a contrast to the feeling when the Tigers left Detroit a week and a half ago coming off an 0-9 homestand. They return home with a 4-5 trip, but had a chance in three other games, from last Saturday’s 13-inning marathon against the Mets to the tie score that the Greiner and Jones home runs granted them Sunday.

Again, Swanson was the difference in the eighth. His leadoff walk and Freeman’s go-ahead RBI double set in motion a four-run inning off a struggling Joe Jimenez, whose rushed throw into center field on a potential double play resulted in three unearned runs.

“We’re never out of a game. We’re fighting,” Boyd said. “We’re down 3-0 in the seventh and we still believe we’re going to win. It didn’t happen today, but there’s going to be a time teams aren’t taking us for granted and we’ll be breathing down their necks. They know we’ll be right there. That’s what Gardy has been telling us. That’s the way we play the game, and it’s exciting.”