Taillon, Morel impress in comeback win over Mets
Vincent Carchietta - USA Today Sports

Taillon, Morel impress in comeback win over Mets
by - Senior Writer - Tue Apr 30 07:07:52 GMT-04:00 2024

QUEENS - No one will make any excuses for this Chicago Cubs (18-11) team, but at some point, you had to think all these injuries would start to add up. Everyone deals with injuries throughout an MLB season, but to have this many this soon and to so many key pieces, it is incredible that this team has been able to stay afloat this long.

Recently, you are starting to see some of those injuries take effect as half of their rotation can't make it through five innings while most of their lineup is struggling to produce and doesn't have that insurance policy behind them. Facing off against Luis Severino and the New York Mets (14-14) on Monday, the Cubs went from looking lifeless to emerging victorious all in a matter of moments.

With Severino dealing and no hitting the Cubs into the eight, Chicago managed to scratch a run across on a fielder's choice to tie things up. Then came the ninth inning when Mike Tauchman picked up a massive one-out double off Edwin Diaz before a Christopher Morel homer deep into the Citi Field night gave the Cubs the 3-1 lead as that homer completely shocked the home crowd.

It was a painful loss for a pitcher who simply dominated the Cubs through eight innings, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out four. While this was a painful loss for the Mets to take, it may go down as one of the best wins in a long time for this team and clearly the best win of this season. This was the first time since 1992 that the Cubs won a game after being no-hit through seven innings.

Credit Jameson Taillon for that, as he has continued to pitch amazingly well since returning from his back injury. Taillon was nearly as good as Severino, going 7 1/3 innings and allowing just one run on four hits. That run came from the game's first batter as Brandon Nimmo led things off with a homer to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Taillon would later allow JD Martinez single in the first before completely shutting the Mets down the rest of the way.

With Severino retiring the first 11 hitters he faced before walking Ian Happ, Taillon managed to keep the Mets off the board as Nimmo reached base twice, once coming off a walk. There was even a point in the ball game where Taillon retired 12 consecutive hitters at one point as he was going pitch for pitch with Severino, only to have his streak end with a Jeff McNeil single in the seventh. Taillon would finish that inning without further damage as all the eyes returned to Severino, who was looking to finish off his second career no-hitter.

The critical moment in this one was the at-bat that Michael Busch put together in the top half of the eighth as he laid off several close pitches to work a walk. That was followed by a broken bat Dansby Swanson single, and just like that, the no-hit bid was over, and the Cubs were threatening. Throughout this stretch of solid play, the Cubs have been a victim of bad luck, but this was one of those times when luck was on the side of the Cubs as both Matt Mervis and Nick Madrigal grounded into fielder's choice plays, but it was the one from Madrigal that changed the game and tied things up 1-1.

Becoming just the second Cubs pitcher to pitch into the eighth this season, Taillon retired the first batter he faced before allowing a one-out single to Tomas Nido, prompting Craig Counsell to call on Mark Leiter Jr. Apart from his outing on Sunday, Leiter Jr has been the Cubs best reliever this season. Still, he came narrowly close to allowing a second homer to Nimmo, only to get out of the eighth unharmed.

Then came the ninth inning, as there was plenty of drama to go around. That all started in the top half of the inning when Tauchman smoked a double the opposite against one of the league's best in Diaz, putting the go-ahead run at second. Two batters later and in danger of being stranded on the bases, Diaz made a rare mistake and left a 98 MPH heater belt high and on the inner third of the plate.

Morel has had a history of knowing what to do with those pitches, and that continued here as he ended a long homerless drought with his fourth bomb of the season to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead.

With the Cubs going with a closer-by-committee process right now, Hector Neris has been the one used most often lately, and despite walking two hitters yet again, he also struck out two, including Brett Baty, to end the game and lifted the Cubs to an improbable 3-1 win.

Despite not getting a hit for nearly eight innings, the Cubs made their hits count, as Swanson, Tauchman, and Morel delivered the lone hits in the win. Chicago will look to make it two straight against the Mets on Tuesday when right-hander Javier Assad faces off against South Paw Sean Manaea. This will be the first left-hander the Cubs will be facing in nearly a week, so expect Alexander Canario and Patrick Wisdom to be in the lineup.

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