MESA, Arizona — I know most of you are focused on the USA/Dominican Republic World Baseball Classic semi-final this evening, and the Cubs’ 14-8 loss to the Dodgers ran real long largely because of a ridiculous ninth inning that I’ll get to in a bit.
The most important story of this game was Jameson Taillon, just back from the WBC and now with only a couple of spring starts left before he opens his 2026 season.
This was not a good outing for Jamo. He allowed eight hits in less than four innings, including
two home runs (one by Mookie Betts, which pleased the very large contingent of Dodger fans at Sloan Park). More concerning was the four walks he issued. One of Taillon’s best features, when he’s on, is that he pounds the zone and doesn’t walk guys. Four walks in 3.2 innings is not good. He walked only 27 batters in 129.2 innings all of last year. Ten of the Dodgers’ 14 runs scored off Taillon, making the score 10-2 at the time he departed. His spring ERA is now 22.18, yikes.
The other homer off Taillon was by Jack Suwinski, who used to wear Cubs pitching out when he was with the Pirates. Maybe he has Taillon’s number — of his 57 career homers, three are off Jamo.
Gotta clean that up, or this is gonna be a rough year for Taillon, who threw only 36 strikes in 70 pitches [VIDEO].
The two runs that scored in that time frame were in the top of the third, a two-run homer by Nico Hoerner [VIDEO].
The good news from this game, such as it is, is that four relievers who will be important parts of this year’s Cubs bullpen all did well. Hoby Milner, Caleb Thielbar, Phil Maton and Jacob Webb combined for four shutout innings, allowing one hit and one walk, striking out three. That’s a good sign, I think.
Then there was that ridiculous ninth inning I mentioned, in which the teams combined for seven walks and nine runs. Devin Ortiz, who the Cubs got over the winter from the Padres system, hit a grand slam in that inning [VIDEO].
For whatever that’s worth.
Attendance watch: A sellout of 15,788 attended Sunday afternoon’s contest, as I mentioned, a large number were Dodgers fans. The boxscore says 13,788 but I clearly heard 15,788 announced. Presuming the larger figure is correct, that makes the season total for 13 games at Sloan Park 163,519, or 12,578 per date.
The Cubs travel west Monday to face the Guardians at Goodyear. Cade Horton will start for the Cubs and Gavin Williams goes for Cleveland. Game time Monday is 8:05 p.m. CT, one hour after the WBC semi-final between Venezuela and Italy starts. We’ll have game threads here for both. Monday’s Cubs game will be televised on Guardians TV, with a radio broadcast from the Cleveland flagship station WTAM 1100.
