Jameson Taillon is looking for solutions.
The right-hander’s Chicago Cubs profession continues to get off to a rocky begin. This time Citizens Bank Park served because the backdrop for Taillon’s struggles. One inning doomed Taillon, a standard theme in his 4 begins since coming back from the injured checklist.
A six-run first inning by the Philadelphia Phillies put the Cubs in a gap they couldn’t get well from in a 12-3 loss Saturday. Kyle Schwarber’s grand slam on a dangling curveball represented the primary blow. Taillon surrendered eight runs (six earned) in 2⅓ innings.
Through seven begins, Taillon, who signed a four-year, $68 million contract in December, owns an 8.10 ERA. Taillon mentioned he bodily feels nice with no lingering points from his groin pressure. Reoccurring struggles to place away hitters and inconsistent command preserve placing Taillon in a foul spot.
“I have to clean it up,” Taillon mentioned. “I feel like the stuff’s there, just comes down to making the right pitch to the right area. And right now, it feels like I’m either missing too far off the plate or too far over the middle of the plate, not finding that sweet spot there on the corners. When I need to do it, definitely not getting enough swing and miss and definitely not finishing guys, too many two-strike counts.”
On the opposite facet, Phillies ace Aaron Nola placed on a clinic pounding the zone. The Cubs struck out 10 occasions and managed simply two runs on a Dansby Swanson residence run. They put solely two runners on by 5 innings. The offense’s lack of ability to get going in opposition to Nola doesn’t matter a lot when Taillon can’t get by three innings.
Taillon has pitched previous the third as soon as in 4 begins for the reason that IL stint, which got here in his final begin at Houston (4⅔ innings). Taillon believes his four-seam fastball isn’t nearly as good as previous seasons and that he isn’t utilizing the pitch successfully. Too usually his fastball is an uncompetitive pitch.
“I really think it’s simple, it just comes down to the fact that I’m not executing right now,” Taillon mentioned. “It’s crappy, particularly being on a brand new group and a brand new place. You wish to show that I should be right here and I’m a superb participant, and to date I haven’t had the chance to indicate that in order that’s a reasonably crappy feeling.
“Obviously, when you’re pitching, you’re out there by yourself so it’s not fun. But you have no choice but to punch back and pick yourself up and find a way to punch back.”
As Kyle Hendricks nears his season debut, the Cubs (20-25) can’t afford to have their bullpen taxed each time Taillon takes the mound. The Cubs needed Hendricks to be sufficiently constructed up earlier than activating him from the IL. In his rehab begin Saturday night time for Triple-A Iowa, Hendricks constructed as much as 82 pitches whereas permitting one run in six innings. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy needed to see Hendricks repeat a heavier workload over a number of outings.
Hendricks’ pitch depend positions him to make his season debut in the course of the Cubs’ upcoming homestand. Javier Assad is eligible to be recalled Saturday if the Cubs need one other lengthy reduction choice within the bullpen to assist Hendricks or Taillon.
“The last thing you want to do is have a guy come up, he’s not fully stretched out and going to ask a lot of our bullpen to cover behind him,” Hottovy mentioned Friday. “Hopefully everything goes well (Saturday) and he’s recovering well and everything feels good after that and we can be talking about bringing him back after that.”
Catcher Yan Gomes, who has been behind the plate for Taillon’s final two begins, mentioned they should take a few steps backward and determine the foundation of the problem. Taillon’s profession monitor file provides the Cubs a purpose to consider he’ll return it round.
“We know that he’s willing to put in the work and willing to make some adjustments if we need to,” Gomes mentioned. “If not, maybe we work a little bit of a different game plan or something like that. So at the same time, we are going to go back and just look at some stuff and make some adjustments to go forward.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com