Cubs starter Jameson Taillon saw what everybody else did Sunday at Wrigley Field: the flags snapping straight out.
“It’s not ideal for what I do and my profile,” Taillon said. “A lot of fly balls, but it’s part of playing here. I’ve [benefited] plenty of days when the wind blows in.
Taillon gave up three home runs, including Oneil Cruz’s drive to begin the game. The most damaging one was the second-inning Brandon Lowe grand slam.
And what bugged Taillon about the grand slam was putting runners on base and falling behind hitters to get into a bad spot, not the pitch itself.
“The homer was kind of, whatever,” Taillon said. “I understand on a day like today it can happen, but getting us in that situation with the bases loaded was not ideal.”
Lowe, who added a fifth-inning home run, hit the grand slam with a 97.3 mph exit velocity and 39-degree launch angle. On many days, especially early in the season, that’s a fly ball to right. Sunday was unseasonably warm and the wind was not a pitcher’s friend.
Somewhat counterintuitively, Taillon said it’s more important to attack the zone in Sunday’s conditions.
“The lesson to be learned is, no matter what the wind is doing it’s on me to be aggressive and still fill up the zone and not let guys get on and get in bad counts,” Taillon said.
After giving up five runs over the first two innings, Taillon bore down and gave up one over his last four. Taillon’s line won’t help his final statistics, but he gave the Cubs the length they needed.
“After [the second] inning, it can’t really get any worse,” Taillon said. “There’s almost a little bit of weird freedom in that. ‘I’ve got nothing to lose, let’s be super-aggressive here and see what we can make out of this day.’”
Harvey hurt
When the Cubs signed reliever Hunter Harvey to one-year, $6 million contract, they knew his injury history. In 2025 with the Royals, Harvey only pitched 12 times and was twice placed on the injured list, adding to his unfortunately lengthy resume of health problems.
It didn’t take long for another issue to crop up this year, adding another challenge to the bullpen after Phil Maton was placed on the IL on April 10.
Harvey was placed on the 15-day IL with right triceps inflammation, retroactive to April 9. The 31-year-old righthander pitched April 3 at Cleveland, was rested until April 8 at Tampa Bay and wasn’t recovering, leading to Sunday’s move.
“We’re trying to get stuff before it gets too bad here,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Hopefully, it’s just a little bit of soreness in the triceps and we can get rid of it in 2-3 weeks and move on.”
Counsell said Harvey’s past was a factor in the Cubs being conservative with his health. The way Harvey was recovering, Counsell added, sent up red flags that the Cubs needed to be careful.
For now, Harvey is not scheduled to undergo any imaging on his arm.
To replace Harvey, the Cubs selected the contract of lefthander Charlie Barnes from Triple-A Iowa. Barnes was 3-0 with a 2.38 ERA in three games with Iowa.