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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JUNE 14: Matthew Boyd #16 of the Chicago Cubs pitches during the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field on June 14, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)

In their 9-4 loss today to the Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Matthew Boyd briefly saw a vision of his own death. Or rather, he might have done. Perhaps it all happened so quickly that he never had a chance.

Throwing to Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford in the top half of the fifth inning, Boyd had to take immediate instinctive evasive action as Crawford found the perfect sweet spot of the bat, lacing a 104 miles per hour liner that was travelling right towards Boyd’s face.

Luckily for him, the glove he flashed up also found the perfect spot. Boyd’s emergency flail of his right arm got in the way just in time, the ball stuck in his glove, and Crawford lined out on one of the best-hit balls of the day.

Boyd’s Lightning-Quick Reflexes

At the start of the above video, Boyd was still in his wind-up, with his knee up around his shoulder. And yet before the video hits the two-second mark, he is already on his way to the turf with the catch in his glove.

It took far longer to read that paragraph than it took for the entire play to unfold. Baseball, at its very highest level, is an impossibly difficult sport.

Boyd’s near-miss had echoes of a similar situation from earlier this week, one which also featured the Mariners. A line drive left the bat of then-Mariner Rowdy Tellez at 106.6 miles per hour, headed right for the face of Cleveland Guardians reliever Cade Smith, who was not able to make a play on it like Boyd was. Mercifully, however, the ball struck Smith’s cap instead of his face, absorbing the bulk of the impact without leaving any meaningful damage, in what turned out to be a fortunate near-miss.

One Day After Hunter Bigge’s Accident

Unfortunately, not everyone is that lucky.

Just last night, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Hunter Bigge was hit directly in the face by another three-digit line drive, this one off the bat of Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutchman. Bigge was not able to make a play on the ball in time, in large part because he was not in the game, instead just watching from the top step of the dugout.

An object coming straight at a player is not as easy to pick up as one coming at an angle. This is made many times truer when that object is travelling at the speed of light, like Crawford’s hit was. Boyd did not escape entirely unscatched, leaving the game with a shoulder injury caused in the incident, but he did at least protect the most valuable part of all.

Be it through genius, luck, or both, Boyd managed to both protect himself and get the out, but between the speed of travel, the fact that things like this keep happening, and the way that the ball nearly drove its way through his glove anyway, this was a very scary near-miss.

Mark Deeks I am continuously intrigued by the esoterica and minutiae of all the aspects of building a basketball team. I want to understand how to build the best basketball teams possible. No, I don’t know why, either. More about Mark Deeks

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