Years ago, when Bob Brenly was the Cubs radio analyst, he appeared at a fan forum in Mesa, Arizona. Someone asked him about the job and I’ll never forget his answer.
Brenly said, “I have the best job in baseball. I come to the ballpark every day, have a great seat for the game, and I go home and it’s not my fault.” That, obviously, referring to Brenly’s time as a manager.
“Where’s Al going with this?” You are certainly asking that question.
Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the A’s was not Jameson Taillon’s fault. Sure, Taillon gave up another home run, but it was a solo job. He allowed only one other run and struck out six in 6.1 quality innings. You should win most of the games when your starting pitcher does that.
The Cubs didn’t win because:
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They ran themselves out of two early rallies, and
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At one point, 17 straight Cubs were retired from the third through the eighth innings.
That, my friends, is not a good offense, not at all.
The Cubs started out well, as they have done in quite a number of recent losses. Nico Hoerner led off the bottom of the first with a single and stole second. Pete Crow-Armstrong singled, and Nico held third as a throw came in — but then PCA took second on the throw.
Second and third, nobody out. The run probability matrix shows that situation projects to a two-run inning (at least).
Did that happen? Well, you already know it did not, from the final score. Alex Bregman grounded out, with Hoerner scoring [VIDEO].
PCA held second on that play, so there’s a runner in scoring position with one out.
Or, at least there was before PCA inexplicably headed for third. He was thrown out fairly easily, so now the Cubs have nobody on with two out. Seiya Suzuki struck out to end the inning. Would they have scored again if not for that caught stealing? We’ll never know, but again, the run probability matrix shows a probability of 0.67 runs in “runner on second, one out” situation. With nobody on and two out that drops to 0.1. Not worth the risk, especially in the first inning.
The second inning was the same story. Ian Happ was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Carson Kelly flied out and Michael Busch singled. Kevin Alcántara hit into a fielder’s choice. Now there are runners on first and third with two out, run probability 0.48. Alcántara took off for second and was thrown out, and of course, the run probability is now zero.
That stolen-base play appeared to be a possible double steal attempt, with Happ taking off from third. But the throw got Alcántara before Happ could cross the plate [VIDEO].
The A’s tied up the game in the third on Nick Kurtz’ 11th home run of the season, and took the lead in the fourth on three singles, and it might have been worse if not for this great sliding grab by Ian Happ [VIDEO].
Happ came close to doubling Henry Bolte off second. But he didn’t, and an RBI single by Zack Gelof gave the A’s a 2-1 lead.
Still, it’s only 2-1 and it’s only the fourth but the Cubs offense just shut down. After a one-out walk by Hoerner in the third, 17 straight Cubs made outs, 11 of those on three pitches or fewer. A’s rookie Gage Jump, making just his second MLB start, was given a gift by Cubs hitters flailing away, perhaps overanxious. It got so bad that Craig Counsell sent Moisés Ballesteros up to bat for Dansby Swanson (who had gone 0-for-2) in the eighth. Ballesteros was one of those quick outs, popping up on the third pitch he saw.
Taillon’s start was very good. From BCB’s JohnW53, we learn how rare that’s been for him this year:
This was just the second of Jameson Taillon’s 12 starts this season in which he pitched at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs. The first was April 18, at home vs. the Mets: 6.0 IP, 1 R, 5 H (1 HR), 3 BB, 4 SO.
He did it in 11 of his 23 starts in 2025 and 14 of 28 in 2024.
Here’s more on Jamo’s outing [VIDEO].
Hoby Milner relieved Taillon in the seventh and recorded five outs on just 16 pitches, another fine outing for the left-hander, who has allowed runs in just two of his last 14 appearances. Daniel Palencia, starved of recent work because the Cubs have so rarely been in save situations, threw a 1-2-3 ninth with one strikeout.
The Cubs showed signs of life in the ninth. Nico drew a leadoff walk and PCA bounced a single through the infield. Now the tying run is on second base with nobody out. Maybe this is the time to generate some movement on the basepaths?
The Cubs did not do that. Bregman struck out. Suzuki flied to center. As you can see here, the pitch called strike 2 to Suzuki was a ball (pitch 3) — but the Cubs were out of challenges at that point, and so the call stood.
Would that at-bat have been different if the Cubs had a challenge left? Obviously we’ll never know, but that would have resulted in a 2-1 count instead of 1-2, and who knows?
The A’s changed pitchers at this point to turn Happ around to bat right-handed, and that’s the right choice for opposing pitchers this year. Happ came into this game batting .258/.391/.523 batting left-handed and just .161/.235/.339 batting right-handed. He flied to center to end the game.
As noted earlier, you should win when you get a start this good:
Taillon’s quality start was the Cubs 21st of the season. They are 14-6 in those games and the starting pitchers are 12-4 with two no-decisions.
Taillon had one of the previous losses, when he gave up four runs, three earned, in 6.0 innings at Tampa on April 16. The other losses were by Shota Imanaga, at Atlanta on May 13, and by Colin Rea, at home against the Astros of May 23.
The loss dropped the Cubs to 6.5 games behind the division-leading Brewers, who beat the woeful Giants again Tuesday. Maybe the Cubs can do that, too, but they really need to take the last two games of this series. Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Last note: At 2:19, this was the second-fastest game at Wrigley Field so far this year (the 3-0 loss to the Astros May 23 was completed in 2:18).
Colin Rea will start for the Cubs Wednesday evening and Jeffrey Springs goes for the A’s. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
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