TORONTO -- Jameson Taillon’s outing on Sunday afternoon had an unfortunate familiarity to it.

The big righty’s command was not as sharp, and the Blue Jays were on the attack, but the Cubs’ defense also had a handful of lapses that did Taillon no favors. That was also the story of his first two months this season.

“I don’t think this is a reason to completely panic,” Taillon said.

After an 11-4 loss that included eight runs on his pitching line, Taillon expressed confidence that this was more anomaly than alarming. That belief stems from the starter’s recent five-week run of success and consistency that coincided with Chicago’s steady climb back into the playoff conversation.

Dating back to his brilliant outing on the road against the Yankees on July 7, Taillon went 5-0 with a 2.17 ERA and the Cubs had won all six of his starts. Heading into Sunday’s game at Rogers Centre, the North Siders had compiled a 21-9 record in the 30 games since that turning point for Taillon.

“The past five, six, seven outings or so have been so big for us,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said of Taillon. “And I feel like it's kind of an underrated part of what's helped us continue to roll this past month or two, it’s just his consistency. He's going to be big for us down the stretch.”

The Cubs (61-57) are currently 3 1/2 games back of the Brewers in the National League Central race, and they are in the thick of a crowded NL Wild Card field.

Chicago expects to have All-Star starter Marcus Stroman back from the injured list this week to help the starting staff, which has also enjoyed the recent pick-me-up from righty Javier Assad. Between those developments, the steady production of Kyle Hendricks and Justin Steele and Taillon’s recent run, the rotation is going to be crucial to the Cubs’ push to October.

“We have a chance to make some noise,” Taillon said. “And it kind of starts and ends with what the starting pitching does. You see a game like today, where the starting pitching is not very good, it's hard to come back and claw back from.

“And then you see when we can just keep our team in games what our offense is capable of. So yeah, I feel like our starting pitching is going to set the tone.”

Things unraveled in the second inning of Taillon’s latest effort.

After getting Cavan Biggio into an 0-2 count, Taillon struggled to close things out against the inning’s leadoff man. Biggio reached when Cubs first baseman Patrick Wisdom was unable to cleanly corral a sharp, sinking liner. From there, Taillon hit Danny Jansen with a pitch before surrendering a three-run homer to Daulton Varsho.

“It looked like he was getting ahead, it just looked like he couldn’t finish,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “Defensively, we weren't quite as sharp as we've been in a little bit. A lot of little things.”

The second frame snowballed into a five-run outburst for Toronto, and Taillon shouldered the responsibility.

“I'm very just execution-based,” Taillon said. “If I execute at a higher percentage with my pitches, I would have put us in a better spot. I feel like whenever those weird things are happening behind you, it's good to just fall back and resort to really executing at a high level.”

Taillon allowed three consecutive singles to open the fourth, leading Ross to hand the ball to righty Hayden Wesneski. Two more runs were charged to Taillon from there, giving him eight earned runs on eight hits in three-plus innings. He struck out two, walked two and bowed out after 89 pitches.

It may have looked like one of Taillon’s early-season setbacks -- he headed into June with an 8.04 ERA -- but the pitcher was spinning his wheels back then, searching for answers. Over the past several weeks, he has found solutions in his delivery and pitch mix, giving him confidence he could more swiftly turn the page now.

“I'd rather not have these games,” Taillon said. “But I do feel like I'm better equipped to bounce back from it after going through what I've gone through. So yeah, we'll look at it. We'll see if I need to adjust anything.”