SEATTLE \u2013 Matthew Boyd is one of baseball\u2019s best pickoff artists.<\/p>\n
So why did his pickoff try Friday night get called a balk?<\/p>\n
The Cubs<\/a> were wondering the same thing, with manager Craig Counsell in disagreement with home-plate umpire Brennan Miller to the point of getting ejected from his team\u2019s extra-inning loss to the Mariners.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a balk,\u201d Counsell said after the game. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t been called for a balk in seven years. He had one where it wasn\u2019t a pickoff move, but he hasn\u2019t been called for a balk in seven years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a situation where the umpire got fooled and made up a call because he got fooled. It\u2019s not a balk. Flat out. No other umpire is calling that a balk, hasn\u2019t called it for seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyd picked 11 runners off last year, leading the major leagues and setting a new Cubs single-season franchise record<\/a>. He\u2019s got four pickoffs this season, just two off the big league lead despite missing significant time with injuries.<\/p>\n Indeed, Boyd has been called for just one balk since he was called for four of them in 2019, coming in 2024 with the Guardians.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thought that I was going to the plate, to sum things up,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cThat\u2019s the same move I\u2019ve done. That\u2019s the first time that move has been called a balk since 2019, when Joe West called it front third base.\u201d<\/p>\n The balk proved costly in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n With the Cubs down a run \u2013 they scored three times in the first inning, but Boyd allowed four runs in the second, including three on a Cal Raleigh home run \u2013 the leadoff man reached on a throwing error by Nico Hoerner, then advanced to second on the balk.<\/p>\n The runner moved to third when the next hitter grounded out, and he scored on a bloop single into shallow center field.<\/p>\n \u201cAny run can make a difference in a game,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cObviously, I would have loved to be better, would have loved to get a strikeout after [the balk]. The ground ball was after that, then the flare dropped in. It\u2019s unfortunate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more the Cal homer. The other ones are going to happen, the soft contact. The Cal homer, I could have done something better with. That\u2019s a three-run mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the boys put up three runs in the first, it\u2019s a tough one to swallow.\u201d<\/p>\n After a stellar run of starts following his return from the injured list in late June, things have been bumpier for Boyd of late. He gave up four earned runs and a season-high nine hits to the Dodgers at the beginning of the month, then seven runs and four homers in a dud against the Cardinals last weekend before allowing four earned runs Friday.<\/p>\n He\u2019s allowed eight homers in his last four starts, during which he has a 6.12 ERA.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always want to avoid the big damage,\u201d Boyd said. \u201c[Big damage is] what happened tonight in that second inning, and it\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: Chicago Sun-Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SEATTLE \u2013 Matthew Boyd is one of baseball\u2019s best pickoff artists.So why did his pickoff try Friday night get called a balk?The Cubs were wondering the same thing, with manager Craig Counsell in disagreement with home-plate umpire Brennan Miller to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15265069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15265067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90.jpg",1461,834,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-620x354.jpg",620,354,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-768x438.jpg",768,438,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-940x537.jpg",940,537,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90.jpg",1461,834,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90.jpg",1461,834,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-998x665.jpg",998,665,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-1340x834.jpg",1340,834,true],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15265067-90-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"Chicago<\/a>","tag_info":"Chicago","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15265067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15265068,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265067\/revisions\/15265068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15265069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15265067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15265067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15265067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}