CHICAGO – A less-experienced arm possibly unravels in the early going of Wednesday’s win-or-go-home Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
Good thing the Cubs had veteran right-hander Jameson Taillon on the mound for a 4-3 victory over the Brewers to force Game 4 on Thursday night at Wrigley Field.
After Christian Yelich led off the game with a double down the right-field line and Brice Turang walked with one out, William Contreras skied a popup that first baseman Michael Busch lost in the sun. The ball dropped, loading the bases on a play with an expected batting average of .001.
“I think that's where some experience comes in,” said Taillon, who tossed four innings of two-run ball. “I've played long enough, I've been through pretty much anything that can happen on a field. I've been through, I've been a part of, I've seen some crazy things in baseball. Just try not to let the moment take me there. Just step off, regroup, grab my sights, figure out what pitch I want to throw next and just move on to the next. It was a weird way to start the game. But again, I've seen it all.”
Though Sal Frelick produced a sacrifice fly to left, Taillon induced an inning-ending flyout to limit the damage to just one run. Momentum appeared to swing in the Cubs’ favor, as they scored four runs in the bottom half of the frame.
Manager Craig Counsell and Ian Happ spoke pregame of the importance of putting up a zero on defense in the first. That didn’t happen, but Taillon still set the tone.
In Milwaukee, the Cubs’ starters immediately coughed up first-inning leads in Games 1-2. Lefties Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga had combined for just 3 1/3 frames and 10 runs (six earned) allowed.
“Jamo did a really good job at only letting one run up, but then just tried to reset,” said Busch, who knocked a leadoff homer for the second time in the NLDS. “It's a long game and there's a lot of outs and just tried to remind myself just to have a good at-bat. I think that along with energy in the dugout really helped. I thought that first inning, just one through nine we had some phenomenal at-bats. Put a lot of pressure on them. Obviously, it was big for us that inning.”
Arguably more important than Taillon’s escape was his shutdown frame in the second after a 41-minute first that featured 72 combined pitches and five runs.
In fact, the Brewers didn’t get another baserunner until Frelick’s one-out single in the fourth. Frelick would come around to score later in the inning on Jake Bauers’ RBI single.
“I thought Jamo really escaped two innings essentially, the first and the fourth, and he had to make big pitches in both innings,” Counsell said. “That's why you want Jamo out there. I said before it's the ‘calm in the storm,’ and nothing fazed him, and he made a couple really -- both times made some good pitches in the first and the fourth to limit the damage. That's what being a good pitcher is about. A run scores, and you don't get flustered. You don't change anything. You just keep making pitches. For Jamo to just put up single runs in those innings I think was really important, especially with how the game unfolded.”
This is what the Cubs have come to expect from Taillon, who turns 34 on Nov. 18. Since his return from the 15-day injured list on Aug. 19, his 1.70 ERA (min. 30 IP) ranks fourth in the Majors. Chicago has won all but one of his last eight starts, including both this postseason in elimination games.
Taillon’s performance also set up Counsell to navigate his bullpen with a lead rather than to chase down a deficit. Five relievers held the Brewers to one run across five innings.
“I think in the postseason, it's just number of outs you can get, right?” Counsell said. “Kind of looked at it before the game and was like, ‘We really need to get Jamo two times through the order.’ When he had a 1-2-3 third, you're thinking maybe we can get four-plus from him or an out in the fifth. They put together a nice rally in the fourth.
“But that was kind of the minimum we needed, I guess, is how I'd say it. He got us 12 outs, and what it does more than anything is we didn't have to really overuse anybody tonight. So we should be in pretty good shape for tomorrow, and that's important.”