Game 2 photos: White Sox beat Cubs 8-3 in City Series at Rate Field<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cProbably need to pitch in more, pitch up more, just be a little more unpredictable because right now, obviously, the game\u2019s telling me it\u2019s not good enough,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cNeed to be better and just need to find a way to punch back and make that adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home run will always be a part of Taillon\u2019s game as a fly-ball-oriented pitcher, but how it has transpired so far in 2026 has been extreme.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it just feels like every mistake I am making, I feel like I need to be perfect, and that\u2019s kind of what I\u2019m saying,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cI need to do a better job of giving myself a little more leeway.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery mistake seems to be a homer. That\u2019s the game telling me to make an adjustment. I know it\u2019s a part of my game, unfortunately, but it shouldn\u2019t be to this extent.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cnothing of big intensity or anything like that, but another good day,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before the game.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
If Taillon can return to who he was the last two seasons \u2014 he had a 3.45 ERA in 295 innings \u2014 that would be a welcome addition to the Cubs rotation. They believe he can do that, despite Saturday\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Taillon\u2019s) a guy that misses barrels and when he\u2019s on, he\u2019s punching people out and putting weak contact in our hands,\u201d Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cToday was just a day that he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trust (Taillon), and I think that\u2019s the most important thing. I know (Taillon) trusts in his work and preparation. Today\u2019s just a day \u2014 they came out swinging. They played their tails off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago White Sox loaded their lineup with seven left-handed hitters against Chicago Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,7581,138,24,49,2561,12075,10448,576,5173,2000,4154,4,73,35,396,2562],"class_list":["post-701051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-caleb-thielbar","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-city-series","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-craig-counsell","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116588158891079932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701051","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=701051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}