Boyd rode his changeup to a solid start here. The Pirates packed their lineup with eight right-handed batters against the lefty Boyd and he responded by consistently dotting that changeup. It regularly fell down just below the zone and forced plenty of weak swings on pitches that were out of reach. In all, it earned six swings-and-misses and got him out of a few jams. He now has a 2.70 ERA in what was a solid first month of the season. He’s set for a two-start week coming up against the Giants and Mets.

This was a true old-school start by Boyd. The Dodgers were on him for most of this start with 12 hard-hit balls and two home runs, but Craig Counsell left him out there for six innings despite the constant damage being done. He even faced Shohei Ohtani for a fourth time, which is completely unheard of. While half of his runs were unearned, Boyd himself made the error that kindly took them off his ledger. Still, seeing Boyd trusted to give volume bodes well for his fantasy value. He’s scheduled to face the struggling Pirates in his next start.

The runs came on a walk and three singles in the third. Nico Hoerner also made an incredible play on the second hit, flipping the ball between his legs to first, but it wasn’t quick enough to get an out with Fernando Tatis Jr. running. Boyd dropped to 1-2 in spite of his 2.01 ERA. He’ll hope for more support next week against the Dodgers.