Chicago Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon was left to lament a porous performance in his most recent outing.
Fresh off allowing a career-high four homers, Taillon will look to keep the ball in the park on Wednesday as the Chicago Cubs vie for a three-game series sweep of the visiting Miami Marlins.
Prior to his generous outing against the New York Mets on Friday, Taillon (2-2, 4.53 ERA) had allowed six homers in his first seven starts of the season.
“Maybe (I’ll) just take the next couple of days to evaluate some of the game-planning and execution there,” Taillon said after the game, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “They jumped on some pitches. They also wasted and fouled off a lot of good pitches.”
All told, Taillon allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits in a season-low four innings of a 7-2 setback to the Mets.
Taillon, 33, has fared significantly better in his career against Miami, going 3-0 with a 0.83 ERA in four starts.
The Cubs rebounded from a 1-4 stretch by winning the first two contests of the three-game series. Chicago followed up a 5-2 victory on Monday by rallying for three runs in the ninth inning to secure a 5-4 win on Tuesday.
Nico Hoerner had an RBI single before Justin Turner, batting just .169, ripped a two-run double to cap the late uprising on Tuesday.
“It’s why we play nine innings,” Turner told the Marquee Sports Network. “Quality at-bats up and down the lineup. … Nico obviously hits a bullet up the middle and gives me an opportunity to be the hero.”
Said Chicago manager Craig Counsell: “I’m happy for (Turner). It’s not fun watching a great player struggle. But he got a moment, and he did it.”
While the Cubs are back on the upswing, the Marlins have lost three in a row and 13 of their past 16 overall.
Left-hander Ryan Weathers (2024: 5-6, 3.63) will make his season debut after being sidelined with a left flexor muscle strain.
Weathers fared well in his third minor-league rehab start. Pitching with Triple-A Jacksonville on Thursday, he allowed just two hits over five shutout innings. He yielded two earned runs on four hits while striking out 13 in 10 2/3 innings in his rehab starts with Jacksonville and Single-A Jupiter.
Weathers, 25, owns a 1-2 record with an 8.27 ERA in five career appearances (four starts) against the Cubs.
On Tuesday, Kyle Stowers belted his team-leading eighth homer and pushed his club-best on-base streak to 12 games.
“He’s certainly a calming presence,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Stowers. “Big home run today to get us on the board, take an early lead. I think we’ve just seen that with Kyle, that his ability to just hang in there within a game and put together high quality at-bats.
“The steady presence with the way he handles himself and how he comes in each day, approaches the process and the preparation aspect of things. Kyle continues … every night to do something on either side of the ball that helps us.”
–Field Level Media
