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Jameson Taillon Pitches an Eight Inning Gem in Pirates 4-0 Win

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PITTSBURGH — Jameson Taillon kept the San Diego Padres off-balance with a three-hit, eight inning performance in the Pirates’ 4-0 series-clinching victory.

Taillon displayed his entire arsenal by mixing pitches and got quick outs with his two-seam fastball. It’s the kind of performance that highlights the development that Taillon has made over the last two years, even thought he wasn’t always able to pitch because of back-to-back season-long injuries.

Taillon has always had good a fastball. He was able to maintain 96 MPH, even into the eighth inning. But the ability to use the two-seamer to induce nine ground ball outs and two double-plays has been a game-changer.

“The two-seamer is a weapon,” he said. “I don’t have to be perfect with it. I can get ground balls with it.”

Manager Clint Hurdle likes what it’s done for his ability to get deeper into ballgames.

“Pitch efficiency continues to be first and foremost for me,” Hurdle said. “It’s very, very attractive. Today, he averaged just 12 pitches an inning. … I think it was 18 out of 22 first-pitch strikes. He’s pounding the zone.”

With hitters loading up for the fastball, the ability to turn to a consistent changeup to keep them off-balance has helped.

“When I have the changeup working, it’s another weapon for me, whereas in the past, that was something that I was always working on,” Taillon said. “It was a work in progress. Now, it’s here. The changeup is here and it’s ready to go.”

The changeup was the focus of the early years of Taillon’s development with the Pirates, and now that he’s reached the majors, he recognized the importance of that pitch.

“I’ve been preached the whole time [with the Pirates] that I needed a changeup,” he said. “I took their word for it and I threw it, but at the end of the day, I could get guys out with my fastball and my curveball. Up here, if you don’t show them that third pitch and become a two-pitch pitcher, guys can eliminate pitches. They can eliminate my curveball and sit fastball. A third pitch is huge. There’s a reason they have you working on stuff in the lower levels and there’s a reason they preach what they preach.”

“They think it’s fastball out of the hand,” Hurdle said of Taillon’s change. “To take eight or nine miles per hour off [the fastball] and it looks like the same pitch, it can be very effective. There were mis-hits on it today, a couple ground balls rolled to the right side.”

Taillon uses the fastball-changeup combination to get hitters into defensive counts and then puts them away with the curveball.

In the fourth inning against Jabari Blash, Taillon painted the bottom of the zone with an 80 MPH hook that dropped 14 inches for a called strike. The next pitch followed the same path, but was buried in the dirt for a swing-and-miss punch out.

“He’s been throwing the curveball for a long time,” Hurdle said. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s kind of like a bowler with a big hook, how they can add and subtract to. He has the ability to add and subtract to it, add a little velocity, move it a little bit. … I think he takes some different shots with it.”

To hear Taillon tell it, Thursday’s version isn’t even as good as it gets for his breaking ball.

“The feel of it wasn’t as great as it was in the past, but it was still pretty solid,” he said. “I’m a pretty big perfectionist with my pitches.”

But while he may not be satisfied — and if he isn’t satisfied with Thursday’s results, that may be a permanent condition — he’s definitely aware of the weapon he possesses:

“I can throw it for a strike. I can back-door it to lefties. I can throw it in the dirt. It’s not like a fastball where I can literally move it around the zone to four quadrants, but I definitely have the confidence to throw it for a strike to both sides of the plate, throw it in the dirt and do what I need with it.”

EARLY OFFENSE

The Pirates jumped all over San Diego starter Christian Friedrich for four runs in the first four innings. It was a good way to get the sour taste of Wednesday’s 4-0 defeat out of their mouths.

“We it a point and we talked this morning to come out with some energy and get going,” said third baseman David Freese, who contributed a pair of early RBIs. “We knew how hot it was going to be and knew they were going to be ready to roll. We had to step up and get it done.”

Freese went 2 for 4 to improve his season-long numbers against lefties to 25 for 72 (.347). Starling Marte snapped an 0-for-12 streak by going 2 for 3. Josh Harrison and Gregory Polanco also drove in runs.

EXPECTED BACK SOON

Catcher Francisco Cervelli did not play a day after leaving a game with left wrist discomfort. Cervelli said he’s dealing with some numbness in his hand due to tendonitis and that it is related to his rehab from hamate bone surgery, but not to the previous injury itself. Hurdle said he expects Cervelli to return to the lineup soon.

He gave that same prognosis for first baseman John Jaso, who missed his second game with general soreness after a home plate collision Tuesday.

UP NEXT

The Pirates will send Ivan Nova to the hill to start a three-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers on Friday.

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