The Chicago Cubs will turn to left-hander Matthew Boyd in an attempt to sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon and bump their home winning streak to 11 games.

Winners of 14 of their last 17 games overall and 13-5 at home this season, the Cubs secured a series win with a 2-0 triumph on Saturday. Behind starter Shota Imanaga’s seven scoreless innings, Ben Brown became Chicago’s seventh reliever to record a save this season.

“You play the game in front of you and play with the guys you have and then you go from there,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said about a series of injuries that have put pitchers into new roles.

“That builds resiliency, if anything.”

Boyd (1-1, 7.00 ERA) will oppose Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly (1-2, 9.20) in a matchup of rotation stalwarts who have yet to find their footing in a season disrupted by injury.

Boyd, the Cubs’ Opening Day starter, struck out 10 in a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in his second start of the season on April 1. He reported slight arm discomfort, however, and the Cubs placed him on the injured list with a left biceps strain as a precaution.

He returned to the rotation on April 22 and since has made two starts, although he has not made it through five innings in either one. He notched a no-decision against both Philadelphia and San Diego in which he gave up seven runs on 13 hits in 8 2/3 innings.

Boyd was irked at himself for a failed ABS challenge in the first inning of his latest outing, the Cubs’ 9-7 loss at San Diego on Monday.

He called for a review on the fourth pitch of the first inning — a 2-1 fastball to leadoff hitter Ramon Laureano that was shown to be a ball. The Padres used two walks and three hits to score three runs that inning.

“It’s putting our hitters and our team in a hole when you do something like that in that situation, so early in the game,” Boyd said. “It was not a smart move on my part. I regretted it. I’ll do my best to not make that mistake again.”

The Cubs rallied to take a 5-3 lead into the last of the third inning but could not hold on.

Boyd is 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA in three career starts against the Diamondbacks, the most recent a no-decision in which he gave up four hits over five scoreless innings in a 10-6 loss in Arizona on March 30, 2025. Ketel Marte is 2-for-5 against him.

Kelly opened the season on the injured list with intercostal nerve irritation, which caused mid-back tightness. He has not shown his typical control in three starts since returning in a 4-3 victory at Baltimore on April 14. He has surrendered 13 runs on 16 hits in his two most recent starts while walking eight, ballooning his WHIP to 2.25.

Kelly was asked if command of his four-pitch repertoire might be the last thing to come after the injury-forced layoff.

“I think every comeback is different,” he said after walking five in a 13-2 loss at Milwaukee on Tuesday. “I think everybody’s different. The answer for me right now is ‘yes.’ I have to stop putting myself in bad situations.”

Kelly is 3-1 with a 3.25 ERA in eight career starts against the Cubs, the most recent an 8-1 victory in Arizona on March 28, 2025. Michael Busch is 2-for-6 with a homer against him.

–Field Level Media

It’s been a long road for Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Spencer Strider since his 20-win All-Star season in 2023.

Strider, 27, will be out to prove he’s not a shadow of his former self on Sunday afternoon when he makes his first start of the season as the Braves bid for a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies in Denver.

After becoming the fastest pitcher to record 100 strikeouts (61 innings) in a season in modern MLB history in 2023, Strider made just two starts in 2024 before undergoing season-ending UCL surgery.

Last season, the right-hander went 7-14 with a 4.45 ERA across 23 starts in his return from injury.

Strider began this season on the injured list with an oblique strain but is prepared to rejoin the sizzling Braves. They have won both games of the weekend series to expand on the best record (24-10) in the majors. Atlanta remains the only team in the majors that hasn’t lost a series and holds a 7 1/2-game lead on the second-place Miami Marlins in the National League East.

The bad news for the Braves in their most recent win, 9-1 over the Rockies on Saturday, was the first-inning exit of star right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. due to a lower-body injury. He will undergo an MRI on Sunday.

“It didn’t look great, him coming off the field,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “I am hoping it’s just some cramping and that type of thing, but he’s getting an MRI. That’s never good when you have to get an MRI.”

Acuna hit a leadoff single in the first inning to extend his on-base streak to 23 games.

“You never like to be challenged like this,” Weiss said of the potential impact of losing Acuna. “He’s one of your best players and most talented players. If it happens, we’ll be OK. We’ve got lots of moving parts.”

Strider, meanwhile, has dominated the Rockies in three career appearances (two starts), going 2-0 with an 0.50 ERA. He struck out 16 batters and scattered two hits over eight innings in a 3-0 win over Colorado on Sept. 1, 2022, before fanning 13 Rockies in a six-inning win last June 14.

The Rockies, who have lost four of their past five games, will turn to veteran left-hander Kyle Freeland (1-2, 3.48 ERA) in the series finale. He will make his fifth start of the season.

Freeland, 32, will appear in his second outing since being activated from the 15-day IL with left shoulder inflammation. On Tuesday, he surrendered four runs on five hits across five innings in a 7-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

“I thought (Freeland) was really good,” Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer said. “I considered taking him out after the fourth, but had him go back out for one more and he was good. He competed, kept us right in the ballgame.”

Freeland, the all-time leader in franchise history in starts (235), is 1-5 with a 5.93 ERA in 10 career starts against the Braves.

–Field Level Media