Matthew Boyd fired six shutout innings and Alex Bregman drove in two runs as the Chicago Cubs beat the host Baltimore Orioles 5-2 on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.
Boyd allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven, but the Cubs had to survive some anxious moments to secure a seventh victory in their last nine games.
Miguel Amaya scored three runs and Dansby Swanson knocked in a run and joined Bregman, Amaya and Pete Crow-Armstrong with two hits apiece.
Adley Rutschman had two hits and two RBIs for the Orioles, who began a six-game homestand prior to the All-Star break without producing an extra-base hit.
Baltimore starter Shane Baz (4-9) took the loss as he was charged with three runs on six hits across six innings to fall to 0-3 in his last four starts. Anthony Nunez then yielded two runs and four hits in two innings out of the bullpen.
Boyd (4-1), who matched his longest outing of the season, has now recorded exactly one victory in four consecutive months. Trent Thornton, the fourth reliever used by the Cubs, pitched a perfect ninth for his second save to finish off a combined outing which saw the Cubs’ staff allow six hits and strike out 12 batters.
Bregman’s third-inning single opened the scoring. Crow-Armstrong rapped a run-scoring single in the fifth before Bregman’s fielder’s choice grounder plated another run in the inning.
Michael Busch’s sacrifice fly extended the lead to 4-0 in the seventh.
But in the bottom of the seventh, the Orioles put their first two batters on base and later filled the bases with two outs before Rutschman’s two-run single off Jacob Webb, who struck out Gunnar Henderson to halt the threat.
Swanson’s eighth-inning single with two outs accounted for the final run.
After their seventh-inning threat, the Orioles were retired in order in each of their first two innings at the plate.
The game began following a weather-related delay that lasted nearly one hour.
