When Jameson Taillon broke into the major leagues with Pittsburgh, he was teammates and friends with Gerrit Cole.
“He was there showing me the ropes,” Taillon said.
When Taillon joined the New York Yankees, he was teammates and friends with Cole once again.
“He was there to show me the ropes,” Taillon said.
On Sunday, Taillon was able to rope in a victory for the Cubs as he pitched six strong innings to help beat Cole and the Yankees, 2-1, in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 39,364.
“It was super cool,” Taillon said of beating Cole. “We lived together in spring training for a while. He taught me a lot about pitching.
“He is a great friend. Super loyal. He’s been there for me through a lot of different times. He’s a helluva pitcher and I’ve missed watching him. He’s super special and a great dude and a future Hall of Famer.”
Taillon improved to 10-8 and it’s the third time in his career he reached double-digit wins. He picked up 14 for the Pirates in 2018 and 14 for the Yankees in 2022.
The Cubs (73-70) dropped two of three to the Yankees and entered the day with a 0.7% chance to make it to the playoffs, according to FanGraphs. They visit the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game set starting Monday.
Despite the win, the lack of hitting has been an issue of late.
In the previous two games against the Yankees, the Cubs offense was shut out for 18 innings on five hits and hit .087 in that span. This is the same offense that exploded for 99 runs in a 10-game stretch from Aug. 22 to Sept. 1.
The scoreless skid ended when the Cubs tagged Cole for two unearned runs in the first inning. Isaac Paredes singled home Dansby Swanson and Cody Bellinger for the Cubs’ first runs since Wednesday.
But they scratched out just one hit in the next seven innings to finish with eight in the three-game set.
Paredes snapped an 0-for-14 skid with the hit.
“It was hoping that hit would serve as motivation for the team and the pitcher,” Paredes said through an interpreter. “When things aren’t going so well, I have to get into that mindset of the way things go when things are going right.”
One area has been going right for the Cubs.
As poor as the hitting has been, the pitching has been sharp. Cubs pitchers held the Yankees to six runs. They also kept Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. — who have a combined 136 home runs this season — in the park for 27 innings.
Before the game, fans had a chance to stroll down memory lane as former pitcher Kerry Wood and former third baseman Aramis Ramírez were inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell had faced Wood as a player and managed Ramírez in Milwaukee. He had good things to say about both.
“I always remember how Kerry spun the baseball,” Counsell said. “His curveball and slider — it was just different. He had a breaking ball that picked up speed as it went the other way. He spun the baseball like very few people I’ve ever faced, for sure.
“Aramis in his prime as a Cub, (his) combination of power and contact is one that seemingly all the great hitters have. That made him so difficult as a middle-of-the-order hitter and RBI situations.”
Before the ceremony, Wood and Ramírez said they were humbled by the honor.
“Never in a million years did I think this would be a possibility,” Wood said. “To be on a list with those guys … it’s just a huge honor.”
“I’m excited,” Ramírez said. “I didn’t really know there was a hall of fame for the Chicago Cubs so this was a surprise.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
