{"id":655947,"date":"2026-04-01T05:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655947\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T05:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:37:29","slug":"jameson-taillon-pitches-shutout-innings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655947\/","title":{"rendered":"Jameson Taillon pitches shutout innings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona might be warmer this time of year, but Chicago Cubs starter Jameson Taillon was happy to be dealing in frigid Wrigley Field on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Spring training numbers usually do not translate into the regular season and are generally not taken seriously. But it was hard to ignore Taillon\u2019s stats in Arizona. He was 0-4 in five starts with a 17.55 ERA and gave up 10 home runs in 13 1\/3 innings in the desert.<\/p>\n

While he labored a little early with the pitch count in his first regular-season start, Taillon threw 4 2\/3 shutout innings, allowing two hits while walking four and striking out three in 85 pitches in a no-decision. The Cubs went on to lose 2-0 to the Los Angeles Angels in front of a crowd of 26,288.<\/p>\n

But Taillon\u2019s start is a reason for optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cSpring training obviously was pretty atrocious. You can\u2019t get any worse. But I think in the back of my mind I was telling myself, \u2018let\u2019s get out of Arizona and get to Chicago and get to Wrigley and get to where it matters.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad to see I wasn\u2019t crazy for thinking that the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cubs manager Craig Counsell wasn\u2019t worried about Taillon\u2019s spring training numbers, as he thought the right-handed pitcher finished spring training with a good performance against the A\u2019s. So, Tuesday\u2019s outing was not a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pitched well,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cHe navigated it. And there was really little hard contact. They got the pitch count up on him a little bit, but he did a really nice job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman throws to first base on a groundout by Los Angeles Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel in the seventh inning of a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago on March 31, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Angels (3-3) scored a pair of runs off reliever Phil Maton in the sixth when Logan O\u2019Hoppe singled a shot that deflected off third baseman Alex Bregman\u2019s glove.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rocket,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cMaybe I should have chested it up. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in that inning, Jeimer Candelario hit a ball to center that got by center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> for a double.<\/p>\n

\u201cI f\u2212\u2212\u2212ed up,\u201d Crow-Armtrong said.<\/p>\n

The Cubs (2-3) were shut out for the first time this young season and scratched out just four hits.<\/p>\n

As sharp as Taillon was, Angels starter Jose Soriano (2-0) was also on top of his game, firing six shutout innings and allowing two hits. In two starts against the Houston Astros and the Cubs, he threw 12 scoreless innings, allowing four hits.<\/p>\n

With a full trip through the rotation, the Cubs starters had mixed results as they were 2-2 with one no-decision. They posted a 4.21 ERA with nine walks and 26 strikeouts in 25 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The second night of this three-game series did not look anything like the first, when the Cubs won 7-2<\/a> on a 72-degree evening in which the wind was blowing out at 16 mph.<\/p>\n

When the Cubs did pregame drills at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the temperatures were still in the low 70s. But it quickly turned cold \u2014 the game-time temperature was 44 degrees with the wind coming in at 14 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got through in the hitters\u2019 meeting and we talked about how we thought the wind was going to be blowing in but it already changed,\u201d Counsell said.<\/p>\n

Just another tricky day at Wrigley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wind just isn\u2019t a factor in most other major-league baseball games,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cIt\u2019s seemingly \u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 in 60 or 75% of the games where the wind is a factor in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe temperatures are the temperatures. It\u2019s not going to change anything. But the wind is something real and we just have to be aware of it and continue to try to use it to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bregman, the Cubs\u2019 big free-agent signee during the offseason, wasn\u2019t complaining about the weather during his first homestand at Wrigley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played in hot, cold and everything in between,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s no excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury report
\n\"SeiyaSeiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs looks on during batting practice prior to the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field on March 30, 2026. (Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Seiya Suzuki got in some running and sliding drills before Tuesday\u2019s game and Counsell said he is ready to go on a rehab assignment later this week with either Triple-A Iowa or Double-A Knoxville, depending on which team has the more favorable weather forecast.<\/p>\n

Iowa is at Louisville for a six-game set that wraps up Sunday, and Knoxville plays a pair of home games against Birmingham on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

Suzuki was placed on the 10-day injured list<\/a> after he injured his right PCL on March 14 while sliding during a stolen-base attempt in a World Baseball Classic game.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we put him through one last test,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThat included some start-stops and moves on the bases. Sliding. We\u2019re in a really good space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The length of the rehab stint is unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will depend on how he feels,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThe goal is that we want to have him play in right field. We\u2019ll activate him when he is ready to play right field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona might be warmer this time of year, but Chicago Cubs starter Jameson Taillon was happy to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[72,5,138,24,13986,4245,576,161,5173,56,4,256,3425,43923,738],"class_list":["post-655947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-alex-bregman","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-weather","tag-chicagocubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-cubs","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-shutout","tag-sieya-suzuki","tag-wrigley-field"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116327839202970600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}