Once reliever Drew Pomeranz got to a two-strike count against Brewers left-handed hitter Brice Turang, Cubs fans rose to their feet, their cheers swelling, as if they could will him to a third strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the moments that, when I didn\u2019t play for a few years, you\u2019re not getting that anywhere else but in a baseball game,\u201d Pomeranz said after the Cubs\u2019 8-7 loss Thursday. \u201cTo do it here and sell out, like, every night, that\u2019s why I wanted to keep playing, those moments right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he got Turang to whiff on a heater, the crowd \u2014 an announced attendance of more than 41,000 \u2014 erupted. Pomeranz had escaped the ninth inning with two runners on in a one-run game, his ERA still unblemished. And the Cubs had another chance at a comeback.<\/p>\n
The fans stayed standing through the bottom of the inning, buzzing with hope. But three batters later, the Cubs\u2019 early deficit would prove insurmountable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put us in a hole there,\u201d starting pitcher Jameson Taillon said.<\/p>\n
The Cubs hit three home runs \u2014 by Pete Crow-Armstrong, Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ \u2014 and made a late push, capped by Nico Hoerner\u2019s RBI single in the eighth inning. Pomeranz and Chris Flexen, who limited the Brewers to one hit in three innings, kept their seasonlong streaks without an earned run going.<\/p>\n
But Taillon allowed five runs in four innings, and left-handed reliever Genesis Cabrera surrendered a three-run home run in the fifth, a combination that ultimately dashed the Cubs\u2019 chances of sweeping the two-game series against the Brewers.<\/p>\n
It was a rare outing for Taillon. Tied for his shortest of the season, it ended his streak of six quality starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a team that getting ahead is pretty important against, and we just didn\u2019t do a good job throwing first-pitch strikes,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cThat\u2019s something I feel like I\u2019m usually pretty good at, and today it just wasn\u2019t something I was sharp with. So I felt like that kind of made me a little more one-dimensional than usual, which makes it tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that he might have needed a shift in mindset on a few early-count curveballs but overall chalked up his struggles to mostly feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really throw any good sliders today,\u201d Taillon said.<\/p>\n
One of those sliders he hung to Rhys Hoskins, who hit it over the left-field wall for a game-tying solo homer in the second inning.<\/p>\n
Later that inning, Taillon missed over the middle of the plate with a cutter to Caleb Durbin, who lifted a two-run homer into the second row of the bleachers in left-center.<\/p>\n
While Taillon has pieced together a relatively consistent season, those two long balls brought his season total to 18 home runs allowed, tied for the third-most in the majors as of Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things, when I\u2019m scouting teams, I need to probably start being even more aware of where their damage is,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cI like pitching to my strengths; I like doing my thing. But now it\u2019s to a point where it\u2019s like, OK, where are guys hitting homers, where are they doing their damage, where should I avoid? Because being up there in the top couple in the league in homers is never something you want to be known for.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to his slider as an area for improvement. Last season, opposing hitters had a .181 batting average against that pitch, according to Statcast. Going into Thursday, it was up to .259.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t have the same feel for it,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cSo I\u2019d really like to right the ship there, and I think that should help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the Cubs clawed back and had the top of the order up in the ninth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how the game goes sometimes,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cWe made them earn the 27 outs, and they just ended up scoring more runs than we did. But that\u2019s why you play so many of these games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taillon gave up five runs in the Cubs’ 8-7 loss to the Brewers on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":62686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n