CHICAGO — Five seconds remained in the pitch clock.

Matthew Boyd stared in toward home plate, ready to fire a pitch to Tampa Bay Rays catcher Nick Fortes.

The pitch clock ticked down to four seconds, then three as Boyd picked his right leg up and delivered a strike … to first base.

It caught Rays center fielder Everson Pereira completely by surprise as he danced off the bag. Cubs first baseman Michael Busch reached high above his head for the throw and easily tagged Pereira out.

It was a massive play in the game as the Cubs went on to beat the Rays 6-4 for their third straight win.

[Cubs injury updates: Kyle Tucker, Daniel Palencia, Seiya Suzuki, Michael Soroka]

The Cubs had just taken a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the third inning and Boyd was tasked with trying to pick up a shutdown inning. Instead, the first two Rays reached on a single and then a walk, putting Boyd and the Cubs in a pickle.

After a flyout, Boyd fell behind Fortes 1-0 in the count before pulling off his secret weapon.

The Rays still scored a run in the inning, but the pickoff was a big-time rally-killer and went a long way to preserving the Cubs’ lead.

It was also history for Boyd, who notched his 11th pickoff of the season. That’s the most by a Cubs pitcher since at least 1901.

Boyd also has the most pickoffs in MLB since 2012, when Los Angeles Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw also had 11 (per SportRadar).

Friday’s play was unique and important for a number of reasons.

First, it was bold and completely unpredictable. There was a runner on second base, so Pereira was not the lead runner.

Teams rarely attempt a pickoff on the trailing runner, but that worked to the Cubs’ advantage in this case as the element of surprise played a major role.

“It shows up again,” manager Craig Counsell said postgame. “This was a little different version today. I don’t want to call them free outs, because they’re stuff that Matt works on and is really good at and Michael does a nice job with them. But they change innings – first and second, one out, man on second, two outs. They absolutely change innings.

“He’s done a great job with that and he’s disguised them very well throughout the course of the year to continue to getting outs even though the other team knows that he’s very good at it.”

The pickoff is something we’ve seen so often from Boyd this season. He has accounted for nearly four full innings (3 2/3) with those 11 extra outs.

It has been a big part of his success, as he now carries a 3.05 ERA with a 13-8 record.

“He’s a really good athlete,” Counsell said before Friday’s game. “From the pickoffs to the fielding his position, that’s been enormous – I think we’re at 10 pickoffs. When you think about just the pickoffs, that’s a lot of outs he’s gotten right there.

“His fielding is exceptional. He practices that stuff. It’s really important to him to be good at it. Matthew’s a guy, he’s got his whole game covered and he’s very aware of his whole game and keeping it good. He’s just a really good competitor.”

More than 40% of his career pickoffs have come this season, believe it or not. Friday marked his 27th career pickoff over his 11 years in the big leagues.

Boyd has never picked off more than five runners in a season before this year, but it has become a major part of his game.

Why has it suddenly become so effective?

“I think just what makes it good is I have a funky delivery, right?” Boyd said. “The little bit of funk that adds the deception to the hitter adds to the deception as a baserunner as well. I’m sure those things are all adding in. If you can keep a guy closer, that’s great. If you get an out, it’s a bonus.”

Boyd was an All-Star this year for the first time in his career and the 34-year-old has positioned himself as one of the Cubs’ top starters entering the playoffs.