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Jameson Taillon Throws a Gem to Get the Pirates Back on Track

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NEW YORK – Jameson Taillon found out on Sunday that he would be making his second MLB start in New York. He drove to Pittsburgh, then flew up with the team on Monday. And tonight, he looked like he didn’t want to go back to Indianapolis.

Taillon pitched an absolute gem. He went eight shutout innings, giving up two hits, one walk, and striking out five. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and was extremely efficient, needing only 91 pitches, with 61 strikes, in the entire outing. That helped lead the Pirates to a 4-0 victory over the Mets, breaking them out of a slide recently.

The outing started with a six pitch first inning, with Taillon starting off with a ball to each hitter. This led to Hurdle joking in the dugout that Taillon was on pace for a 54 pitch outing, and hasn’t gotten ahead of anybody.

“It’s a little dugout joke to keep things loose,” Hurdle said. “And by the fourth inning, I said ‘Ray, he’s not far off that pace.'”

Taillon did start getting ahead of hitters after that. In fact, he threw first pitch strikes to 18 of the next 24 batters. Overall, he retired 14 batters on three pitches or less. He did all of this while relying heavily on the fastball. He threw the pitch 16 times in a row to start the game, and continued the heavy usage throughout.

“It started out as establishing the fastball, and then they never really adjusted too well off of that,” Taillon said. “I was commanding it well. Was throwing a lot of two seams, getting good movement, weak contact. Really no need to go away from it.”

The fastball was sitting 94-96 MPH with good movement tonight, and Taillon was mixing in a few more two-seam fastballs. He was able to throw the curve for early strikes, and use it as a strikeout pitch. Overall, it was a strong outing against a difficult Mets offense he just faced five days ago.

“I’d say even from my first start to my second start, my confidence has gotten a little better,” Taillon said. “Just knowing I belong, being a little more familiar with the guys, and the pitching staff. You start putting up zeroes, you’re matching one of the best pitchers in the game, you definitely have a little bit of confidence going.”

Taillon said that he was aware of the no-hitter, but didn’t let it impact him. He recovered from the first hit allowed very quickly, getting Yoenis Cespedes to ground into a double play, with a hard grounder right to Jung Ho Kang to start it off.

Despite the low pitch count, there was no consideration to leaving Taillon out there for the complete game. He has only gone more than 91 pitches twice this year, and had never pitched eight innings in his career before tonight. That made it an easy decision for Hurdle.

“If he doesn’t throw a complete game shutout the rest of his career, I’ll have to wear this one to my grave,” Hurdle joked after the game.

Chris Stewart caught Taillon tonight, and Taillon said after the game that he let Stewart call the game, and rarely shook him off. The first time he did that resulted in a hit by pitch on an 0-2 count to Kevin Plawecki, and that ended Taillon shaking off his catcher. Stewart had a lot of praise for Taillon after the game.

“For the most part, he knew what he had to do,” Stewart said. “He had a really good rhythm going out there, and I just kind of worked with that. A couple of occasions, he sped up a little bit too much and we had to slow him down. Not very often, he knew what he was doing. Pounding the zone with his fastball, mixing it in with other pitches. Throwing his curveball early, throwing his curveball late where he needed to. He attacked the zone the entire day. It was really special to watch.”

Taillon is in line to get at least two more starts in the majors with Gerrit Cole going to the disabled list. However, with the way he has pitched in his first two outings, and especially tonight, he looks like a guy who should be here to stay.

Game Notes

**After the game, Jameson Taillon got a Gatorade shower from his teammates, along with the game ball, which also was part of the Gatorade shower, sitting with red stains in his locker during the post game interview.

**Clint Hurdle on Taillon saving an over-worked bullpen a day after an off-day, and stopping the recent losing: “It’s a big shot in the arm. We’ve been on a slide. He took the ball, was very aggressive from the start.

**The Pirates bounced Jacob deGrom early, with Jung Ho Kang hitting a big two run homer off him in the sixth inning. It was the ninth of the year for Kang. Despite that, deGrom had a good outing, giving up just those two runs on six hits, while walking one and striking out nine. Hurdle noted that they did a good job of working the count and running his pitches up to get him out early.

“It was another night where we were able to continually battle,” Hurdle said. “I think we had ten at-bats of six pitches or more. And he was good. Didn’t have a run until Kang got that ball and hit that laser out left of center.”

The Pirates got their other two runs on a two-run homer from Starling Marte, his sixth of the year.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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