The Chicago White Sox loaded their lineup with seven left-handed hitters against Chicago Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon on Saturday, hoping to expose his bugaboo this season.
Boy, did they.
The White Sox clubbed five home runs off Taillon — the most in the 10th-year veteran’s career — in an 8-3 win against the Cubs in the City Series at Rate Field. Taillon surrendered four of his home runs to left-handed hitters, and the White Sox lefties were 7-for-17 against him. He has allowed 16 home runs this season, the most in baseball and five more than the next closest pitcher, the Seattle Mariners’ Logan Gilbert.
“Just didn’t execute against them, got in some weird counts and stuff,” Taillon said after the loss. “To be completely honest, I don’t think some of those pitches were that bad. It’s a sign that they had a good game plan, and it’s on me now to punch back and adjust.”
Left-handed hitters have hit .240 with a .918 OPS against Taillon, compared with a .221 batting average and .717 OPS against right-handers. Ten of the 16 home runs he has allowed have been to left-handed hitters. The 34-year-old was a reverse-split pitcher last year, with lefties slashing .191/.249/.361 (.610 OPS) against him, compared with a .258/.281/.492 (.773 OPS) slash line against right-handed hitters.
The success for Taillon last year was attacking left-handed hitters away, which led to weak contact and strikeouts. This season, the rest of the league has made an adjustment to his success, and that same game plan has been his weakness. There may have been no better example than Munetaka Murakami’s third-inning home run.
The White Sox slugger worked a 1-1 count by taking a pair of pitches away. The third pitch, an 83.9-mph changeup that clipped the outer edge of the zone, was deposited into the left-center-field bleachers to give the White Sox a four-run lead and the first of two home runs in the frame.
“Yeah, I’d like that down and away, but it’s away,” Taillon, 34, said. “He’s got a lot of power.”
The second home run to Murakami, a two-run shot in the fifth, was a four-seam fastball on the outer third of the strike zone. Andrew Benintendi’s leadoff, solo blast in the sixth that chased Taillon was another fastball on the outer edge of the zone. The other two — Miguel Vargas’ three-run home run in the first and Colson Montgomery’s solo shot in the third — were pitches that were mostly middle-middle.
Taillon knows he needs to change his attack to left-handers, because the league will continue to stack their lineups with them to try and exploit his weakness. That starts with his sequencing and making sure opponents don’t know what to expect from him.
Game 2 photos: White Sox beat Cubs 8-3 in City Series at Rate Field
“Probably need to pitch in more, pitch up more, just be a little more unpredictable because right now, obviously, the game’s telling me it’s not good enough,” Taillon said. “Need to be better and just need to find a way to punch back and make that adjustment.”
The home run will always be a part of Taillon’s game as a fly-ball-oriented pitcher, but how it has transpired so far in 2026 has been extreme.
“Right now, it just feels like every mistake I am making, I feel like I need to be perfect, and that’s kind of what I’m saying,” Taillon said. “I need to do a better job of giving myself a little more leeway.
“Every mistake seems to be a homer. That’s the game telling me to make an adjustment. I know it’s a part of my game, unfortunately, but it shouldn’t be to this extent.”
The Cubs need Taillon to find his footing as they continue to weather the injuries that have plagued their pitching staff. Opening-day starter Matthew Boyd continues to progress after his knee surgery last week but is still a few weeks away from a return. The left-hander threw 15 times off a mound Saturday, “nothing of big intensity or anything like that, but another good day,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before the game.
Caleb Thielbar (left hamstring) threw an inning with Class A South Bend in its 24-4 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, striking out two while allowing a walk and a hit.
If Taillon can return to who he was the last two seasons — he had a 3.45 ERA in 295 innings — that would be a welcome addition to the Cubs rotation. They believe he can do that, despite Saturday’s struggles.
“(Taillon’s) a guy that misses barrels and when he’s on, he’s punching people out and putting weak contact in our hands,” Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “Today was just a day that he didn’t.
“We trust (Taillon), and I think that’s the most important thing. I know (Taillon) trusts in his work and preparation. Today’s just a day — they came out swinging. They played their tails off.”
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.