Matthew Boyd impresses in Guardians debut

Tuesday marked the long-awaited Cleveland Guardians debut of Matthew Boyd, and the veteran left-hander did not disappoint. It was over a year since the last time Boyd stepped foot on a major league mound, but the long wait between starts did not seem to rattle him in the slightest.

Boyd pitched 5.1 innings of three-hit baseball while allowing just one run and striking out six in Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. While it did take some more late-game heroics from Jhonkensy "Big Christmas" Noel and Boyd did not get credit for the win, his team debut could not have gone much better. Going 5+ innings, allowing one run, and not walking a single batter against a team that scored eight the night before is no small feat. Boyd was locked in and delivered what was expected of him and more.

With the current state of the Guardians' rotation, this start from Boyd was huge. Cleveland has had some very notable issues with some of their starters not being able to pitch past a game's halfway point. Being able to get that out of Boyd on the first go around is a huge sigh of relief, considering that this was his first major league start in over a year. There was a very real scenario where Boyd could have been the latest Guardians starter to have an early exit. Getting 5.1 innings out of him in his debut is definitely something that is encouraging moving forward.

Moving forward, Boyd should figure to be involved in the Guardians' pitching plans in some capacity. Cleveland's rotation has pretty much been in flux since the beginning of the season. Being able to insert Boyd and Alex Cobb into the mix should help them out at a time when they need it most. The early returns on Boyd have faired well, and now it is Cobb's turn to come through when called upon.