Jameson Taillon has been a decent starting pitcher in MLB for a decade. Some years have been better than others; his last two were pretty good for the Cubs after a rough first season in Chicago in 2023. I’ve met him and he seems to be a good guy.
I’m afraid Jamo might be past his sell-by date. Taillon served up five home runs to the White Sox Saturday night on the South Side and the Sox blew out the Cubs 8-3
.Not only was that the most for Taillon in any game in his career, it was one of the worst
home-run-allowed performances by any Cubs pitcher, ever. From BCB’s JohnW53:
Taillon is just the eighth Cubs pitcher to surrender at least five home runs in a game.
The previous one was Matt Swarmer, the only one to serve up six, on June 11, 2022, at New York vs. the Yankees.
The six before him were, in order, Warren Hacker at Cincinnati in 1954, Steve Stone at home vs. the Reds in 1974, Ismael Valdez at the White Sox in 2000, Carlos Zambrano at Atlanta in 2011, Travis Wood at home vs. the Cardinals in 2012 and Jason Hammel at New York vs. the Mets in 2016.
Hammel gave up 10 runs; Wood and Zambrano, eight, the same as Taillon; Swarmer, six; and the three earliest, five. The Cubs won the game at the Sox, 6-5. They were outscored in the other earlier games, 53-16.
Not only that, but Taillon put the Cubs in a deep hole after just 10 pitches, which resulted in:
- A ball that ate up Matt Shaw at second base for a single
- A walk to Munetaka Murakami
- A home run to Miguel Vargas
Meanwhile, the Cubs couldn’t do anything with Davis Martin for three innings. One of those outs was Tristan Peters robbing Shaw on this sinking line drive [VIDEO].
Then Taillon served up two more homers, solo jobs, in the third to make it 5-0. The second one of those, by Colson Montgomery, went 442 feet, yikes. That one was reviewed, as it was pretty close to the foul pole, but was confirmed as a home run. At this point it was pretty obvious that Taillon was going to have to stay in the game for at least a couple more innings because two guys who could do long relief (Javier Assad and Trent Thornton) had both done so in Friday’s game.
Another homer, a two-run job by Murakami, made it 7-0 in the fifth.
The Cubs finally got on the board in the sixth with a home run of their own, Miguel Amaya’s third of the year [VIDEO].
One out later, Michael Busch singled and Alex Bregman doubled, perhaps giving some hope of a comeback. But Davis Martin struck out Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki to end the inning.
I am pretty sure Craig Counsell wanted Taillon to throw the entire sixth inning, but after he allowed a leadoff homer to Andrew Benintendi, that was it for Jamo. Five-plus innings, 90 pitches, five home runs. That gives Taillon 16 home runs allowed in 50.2 innings this year. That’s two more than anyone else (Zack Littell of the Nationals, 14). And it’s worse than that, because in two of his nine starts, Taillon allowed no home runs. So the 16 homers have been served up in just 40.2 of those 50.2 innings — and that’s after giving up 10 home runs in 13.2 innings in Spring Training. His ERA went up by more than a run after this game, from 3.94 to 4.97. Any way you do the math, it’s just bad.
The Cubs did have a chance to get back in the game in the seventh. They loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a single by Amaya sandwiched around a fielder’s choice. But Nico Hoerner flied to right and Busch grounded out to end the threat.
Ethan Roberts threw two scoreless innings in relief and Ryan Rolison had a 1-2-3 eighth, so that saved most of the leverage relievers from having to work in this blowout.
The Cubs got two consolation runs in the ninth. Michael Conforto led off with a double and one out later Pete Crow-Armstrong smashed this long home run [VIDEO].
That was PCA’s first homer since May 6, a span of 34 plate appearances. Perhaps he can go on a nice run now. Also, Bregman had two more hits in this game, extending his hitting streak to seven games in which he is batting .333/.354/.467 — maybe he, too, can get things going.
There was a scary moment in this game in the fourth inning when plate umpire Brian O’Nora got hit by a foul ball [VIDEO].
O’Nora had to leave the game and the rest of the game was played with three umpires. Hope he’s okay.
Here are some postgame remarks from Counsell [VIDEO].
So here’s the thing. With Sox starter Davis Martin dealing all year, the Cubs were going to have a tough time in this one regardless. But Taillon did not make things any easier. At this point I think Cubs management has to take some time to think about what’s next for him. In his postgame comments, Counsell mentioned “missed locations” by Taillon and while that’s true, there have been far too many of those this year. Four days of rest for Taillon would bring his turn up on Thursday, which is an off day for the Cubs. In my view it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just skip his next turn while he works on figuring out how to fix things.
Meanwhile, the Cubs still have a chance for a series win on the South Side. Colin Rea will start for the Cubs Sunday afternoon and Erick Fedde will go for the Sox. Game time is 1:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and also on CHSN and WCIU-Ch. 26 with the Sox announcers).
