Taillon turns back the clock in Cubs' 1st Yankee Stadium win

NEW YORK -- It’s fitting that right-hander Jameson Taillon had his best outing of the season at Yankee Stadium, having played for New York in 2021 and ‘22. Taillon was right at home on Friday night, helping the Cubs blank New York, 3-0, to snap their 0-12 skid in the Bronx and earn their first win at Yankee Stadium in franchise history.

Taillon was dealing throughout, throwing eight scoreless innings and allowing his only hit to Gleyber Torres in the first inning, while striking out four batters. The other players to reach base for the Yankees were Billy McKinney and Giancarlo Stanton, both coming on walks in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively.

"Credit to Taillon, who pitched well,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He didn't throw a lot of sinkers tonight, but mixed four-seam with his cutter and the breaking ball, and then his slider. Like he does, he's a strike-thrower. I thought he commanded the ball well and how he wanted to. Obviously, we've got to do better."

The Cubs had previously been 0-12 in the Bronx all time, including the postseason, with an 0-5 record at the current Yankee Stadium. Being familiar with Yankee Stadium played a huge role in Taillon’s success. He believes playing in the stadium can be overwhelming, but he had the luxury of playing in the Bronx for two years. Taillon embraced the environment and loved the fans.

“It felt good to be back," said Taillon, who happened to be the winning pitcher for the Yankees last season the last time Chicago played in the Bronx. "Playing in this environment didn’t catch me off guard."

According to ESPN, Taillon is the first pitcher with at least eight innings pitched and one or fewer hits allowed on the road at Yankee Stadium since the Orioles' Daniel Cabrera on Sept. 28, 2006. Only two other pitchers have done this since 1990 -- Pedro Martínez (Sept. 10, 1999) and Bartolo Colon (Sept. 18, 2000).

Taillon had a close call in the second, as it looked as though Josh Donaldson was about to hit his 10th homer of the season. But right fielder Seiya Suzuki caught the ball at the base of the wall. After the single to Torres, Taillon retired 22 of the next 24 batters he faced.

“I had a good pitch-mix going,” Taillon said. “I feel like I was on the attack. I feel like I was in a lot of good counts. I felt like for once I had a lot of hard-hit balls right at people. They did square some balls up. I do feel I made a lot of good pitches throughout the night. No free passes. Overall, I thought it was solid.”

The way he saw it, Taillon didn’t view Friday’s game as seeking revenge against the Yankees. In fact, he talked about how much he loved them and the battles they had in the trenches. All Taillon was looking for was to have a quality outing for Chicago, and there haven’t been many of those this season. He had a 6.93 ERA entering Friday’s action, but Taillon felt Cubs fans finally saw what he is capable of on the mound.

“I feel like for a while there, I’ve been trying to keep my head down and grind and put up results for that reason. I don’t know if Cubs fans truly know exactly what I am about yet when I’m good and right,” Taillon said. “I’ve been putting in the work, and it’s nice to see it come to fruition. Hopefully we can keep knocking them out. This isn’t something to jump for joy. It’s definitely a nice night. I’ll take my notes and remember what I did well tonight.”

Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón made his season debut, and the Cubs were able to get to him by the third inning when Cody Bellinger hit a mammoth home run into the second deck for his ninth of the season, which gave Chicago a 1-0 lead.

Two innings later, Trey Mancini scored the second run of the game on a single by Nico Hoerner. With Ron Marinaccio on the mound in the seventh, Bellinger scored his second run of the game on a double by Patrick Wisdom.

“The way that we did it, we had some really productive at-bats there,” outfielder Ian Happ said. “Nico there with that big RBI. It was a really solid all-around game for us.”