CLEVELAND — The baseball gods work in the shadows, scripting moments and matchups and sequences that we couldn’t begin to fathom.
Take, for instance, the night of June 26, when Matthew Boyd just so happened to flip on a Cleveland Guardians game to gauge the pulse of the team desperate for his services.
That evening, a rookie sculpted like he should be muscling past offensive tackles walloped a home run to center field at Camden Yards in his first career at-bat.
Fast-forward four months. Boyd, with a rejuvenated left elbow, has become Cleveland’s most consistent postseason starter, and he delivered another sterling effort in Game 3 of the ALCS.