Jameson Taillon’s telephone lights up on a regular basis with texts about his Chicago Cubs teammate Mike Tauchman.
Taillon’s shut good friend and former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Nick Kingham spent final season enjoying with Tauchman within the Korea Baseball Organization, the place the Cubs outfielder’s profession bought again on monitor removed from Major League Baseball.
Kingham’s texts to Taillon usually comply with the identical theme:
“I’m not surprised.”
“I knew he was going to come back to MLB.”
“If he got a shot, he was going to do well.”
Taillon first bought a glimpse of what has made Tauchman so profitable this yr after they performed collectively in 2021 with the New York Yankees.
“He’s intense and he’s a gamer and he loves the game,” Taillon mentioned. “He’s super prepared. He puts in the work and he’s studying pitchers. He really works at his craft.”
Tauchman’s methodical, grinder strategy arrange his go-ahead solo residence run within the eighth inning of Tuesday’s 3-2 win towards the New York Mets. He labored a full rely and took benefit of a fastball that Mets reliever Drew Smith left up within the zone for the opposite-field homer.
Adbert Alozlay locked down the win, ending it off by beginning a game-ending double play. The Cubs (59-55) go for the collection win Wednesday night time with Kyle Hendricks on the mound.
“Sometimes there’s a specific lane that I’m looking for,” Tauchman mentioned of his strategy. “Sometimes it’s being able to eliminate a pitch that that particular pitcher doesn’t throw for a strike very often. You’re just playing the odds sometimes, and ultimately it’s about execution.”
Moments earlier than the primary pitch Tuesday, the Mets’ PitchCom wasn’t working. The technical points prompted a slight delay, and as soon as it was decided the Mets couldn’t get it to work, the Cubs have been knowledgeable in addition they wouldn’t be allowed to make use of the machine.
Aside from scrambling earlier than the underside of the primary for an indication card to make use of with runners on second base, Taillon was unfazed by going again to the normal hand indicators from the catcher.
Mets slugger Pete Alonso’s two-run homer within the first stood as Taillon’s lone blemish in one other high quality begin. He retired 16 consecutive batters to finish the kind of dominant outing an overworked Cubs bullpen desperately wanted.
“It’s just a compound effect of once you have a good outing, it starts building,” Taillon mentioned. “The confidence starts building and I feel like that carries over into my work and my delivery and my game planning, and all that just gives me a little bit more conviction behind what I’m doing.”
Over the previous month, Taillon has been the Cubs’ second-best starter and given them what they envisioned after they inked him to a four-year deal within the offseason. He owns a 2.17 ERA in his final six begins, pitching into at the least the sixth in all of them with the Cubs profitable every of these begins.
His greatest stretch of the season has coincided with that of the Cubs, who sit 1 1/2 video games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers after Tuesday’s victory.
“I mean, that’s the benefits of a baseball season, I guess, that there’s 162 (games), so I kept telling myself that ‘there’s time, there’s time, there’s time,’” Taillon mentioned. “Coming to a company and never having the ability to contribute for some time was powerful, however I simply tried to indicate up, be an excellent teammate, make an influence in different elements of the sport and within the locker room and stuff.
“I knew my time was coming, so hopefully I can just keep my head down and keep it going.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com