Taillon finally earns first win as Cubs down Padres |
SAN DIEGO - Happy Lou Gehrig's Day, everyone, as the Chicago Cubs (25-31) traveled to Petco Park to kick off their 10-game West Coast trip against the San Diego Padres (26-31). Much like their previous series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the offense was at a premium as the Cubs relied on strong pitching and just enough offense to open their road trip with a 2-1 win.
In an interesting pitching matchup against two pitchers heading in different directions, you had Jameson Taillon looking for his first win as a Chicago Cub, taking on Michael Wacha. You could argue that Wacha was one of the best pitchers in May, while Taillon was one of the worst pitchers in the month. You can make another claim that Taillon's best start of the season came out West when he tossed five scoreless innings against the Dodgers in a no-decision. Evidently, Taillon loves pitching out West as the right-hander was locked in from the start. Not only did he retire the Padres nine up, nine down to begin the game, but he did so on a very efficient pitch count, which has been an issue for him all season. Taillon gave the Cubs 5 2/3 innings of one-run, three-hit ball to go with three strikeouts as he picked up his first win of the season. “It's definitely not early anymore, for sure,” Taillon said after his first win. “It's nice to have great camaraderie and work ethic and everything, but at some point, it is about wins and losses. And we have a lot of veterans in the room, too. So I don't think there's any panic, but there's definitely some urgency to get it going.” “When I'm pitching well, the four-seam seems kind of at the foundation of everything that I do,” Taillon said. “Throw the strengths, and then work everything else in after that.” On the other hand, Wacha had to grind it out through four-plus innings, as he needed more than 100 pitches and didn't even finish the fifth. From a damaged side of things, Wacha limited the damage despite walking five as he allowed two runs on three hits. He also struck out eight, which helped bail him out of trouble, but also was a huge reason why his pitch count grew as quickly as it did. The command issues of Wacha were evident from the start as he walked a hitter in each of the first two innings but managed to escape without allowing the run. Once the third inning rolled around, the Cubs knew they had to capitalize on him eventually, and it was the top of the order coming through. One-out singles from Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson set the offense up as the Cubs had runners on the corners and Ian Happ coming to bat. Happ has been struggling as of late and put the ball on the ground in what could have been an inning-ending double play, but he beat the throw to first and gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead with an RBI fielder's choice. The Cubs never looked back as the pitching once again stole the show. With the Padres offense continuing to struggle through three innings, the Cubs had a chance to put them in an even bigger hole in the fourth after Wacha walked both Mike Tauchman and Christopher Morel to begin the inning. Unfortunately, the Cubs year-long issue continued to show up as they went 0-13 with runners in scoring position, including 0-3 in that inning to keep things 1-0. Swanson continued his excellent night with a solo shot in the fifth as the Cubs built a 2-0 lead, as that would be it in terms of their offensive numbers in the game. Dansby Swanson - Chicago Cubs (6)
For Swanson, he led the offense with three hits, including that homer, and he is starting to heat up again. With Fernando Tatis Jr picking up the Padre's first hit in the bottom of the fourth, their offense finally seemed to be figuring things out against Taillon in the sixth, forcing David Ross to get the pen up quickly. Rougned Odor led the bottom of the sixth with a double to center before advancing to third on a Trent Grishman ground out. A few pitches later saw Xander Bogaerts roll a perfectly placed infield single down the third base line, and just like that, it was a 2-1 game with the heart of the order coming up. Taillon would retire Tatis Jr before Ross turned to Brandon Hughes to finish the inning with the Cubs still in front 2-1. While the Cubs pen has struggled a ton this season, the Padres pen has not, with Steven Wilson and Tim Hill dominating the Cubs over the final three frames to give their offense a chance. Fortunately for the Cubs, they were up to the challenge as they struck out the side in the seventh, including a pair of strikeouts from Julian Merryweather, who took over for Hughes. Once the eighth inning rolled around, you started to see the momentum swing back in the Padres direction as Odor led off the inning with a single before Merryweather walked Grisham to put two on and no outs. That forced Ross to go to Adbert Alzolay in a tough spot, but the right-hander delivered by inducing a double play off the bat of Bogaerts and then carving up Tatis Jr to send the game into the ninth. Down to their final three outs, it was up to Mark Leiter Jr to lock things down and lock things down. He did as he went right through the middle of the Padres in order to strike out the side and pick up his third save of the season. For Leiter Jr, this was the bounce back that he needed especially coming off his rough game against Tampa as the Cubs take game one out West 2-1. Hoerner added the other hit for the Cubs in the win. Chicago will return to the diamond tomorrow night when Drew Smyly takes on former Chicago Cub Yu Darvish at 9:10 PM CDT.
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