Francisco Lindor hit Jameson Taillon’s third pitch of the night out of Citi Field. That produced this not-so-fun fact, from BCB’s JohnW53:

The homer by Francisco Lindor was the fourth this season allowed by the Cubs to the first opposing batter of a game.

Shota Imanaga did it at home vs. the Rangers on April 9. Ben Brown did it at home vs. the Diamondbacks on April 19. Colin Rea did it at Pittsburgh on May 1.Cubs pitchers served up nine such homers all of last season, 17 in 2023, seven in 2022 and 15 in 2021.They have yielded 531 since 1912: 339 on the road and 192 at home.

Taillon has surrendered 10, tying him for fourth most with Rick Reuschel. Steve Trachsel gave up 12; Jon Lester, 14; and Kyle Hendricks, 15.

Taillon had been tied at nine with Glen Hobbie and John Lackey.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all for Taillon and long balls Friday night. He allowed four of them in all to Mets hitters, producing yet another fact from BCB’s JohnW53:

This is the first of Taillon’s 208 career starts in which he surrendered four home runs. He gave up three in 2016 with the Pirates, in 2021 and 2022 with the Yankees, and last September with the Cubs.

Taillon became the first Cubs starter to allow four home runs in a game since Jordan Wicks did it Sept. 11, 2024 against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

All of that added up to a 7-2 loss to the Mets, the Cubs’ third straight defeat, and I’ve got one more for you from JohnW53:

The Cubs did not lose a third straight game last year until their 52nd game. In 2023, it was their fourth; in 2022, their 13th; and in 2021, their 10th.

They went 70 games before losing three in a row in 2016 and 73 games in 2008. Those were their only higher game numbers since 2000 than last year’s 52.

Hopefully, this sort of thing doesn’t become a habit.

The Cubs trailed 5-1 by the time Kyle Tucker put them on the board with a solo homer in the top of the fourth [VIDEO].

That was Tucker’s 10th of the year. He also has 10 stolen bases. The only other MLB player to currently be in double figures in both those categories is Shohei Ohtani. So that’s good, anyway.

The Cubs generated very little offense through eight innings — only two other hits besides the Tucker homer.

After Taillon left the game after four innings and a way-too-large total of 100 pitches, the Cubs got some decent relief work. Gavin Hollowell threw a scoreless inning and his reward is likely a trip to Des Moines when Cade Horton is officially called up before Saturday’s game. Ryan Pressly, in his first outing since The Great Tuesday Night Disaster, threw a scoreless frame, issuing a walk and allowing a hit. And Tom Cosgrove finished up with two innings, allowing a solo home run to Juan Soto that made the score 7-1.

The Cubs got a consolation run in the ninth on this homer by Michael Busch, his seventh [VIDEO].

But that was that. It just wasn’t a good night all around; a couple of Mets runs scored on a rare error by Dansby Swanson. At least all the leverage relievers had the night off. It is a bit concerning that Cubs bats have been mostly silent for the last few games, apart from the nine runs they put up against the Giants on Monday. Hitters do go into slumps from time to time, and this Cubs team is obviously no exception to that. Hopefully it doesn’t last too long.

Cade Horton, as has been widely reported, will make his MLB debut tonight against the Mets. It won’t be as a starter, though (Bluesky link):

The most pitches Keller has thrown in a game this year is 46, and that was March 28 at Arizona. The most since then is 28, done a week ago. So it seems likely that Keller is going to be an opener and we’d see Horton by the third inning at the latest, maybe the second. Tylor Megill will start for the Mets. Game time is 6:15 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Fox-TV (regional — coverage map).