Game Recap: Taillon struggles with the long ball in Cubs' loss to Marlins

Kamil Krzaczynski - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 8 hours ago

CHICAGO - At some point, you would love to see the Chicago Cubs (25-19) complete a three-game sweep as they have yet to do that at Wrigley Field. Entering Wednesday's game against the Miami Marlins (16-26), the Cubs had an opportunity to do just that as they were looking for their second home sweep of the season, but first home sweep of at least three games.

Instead, it was more of the same for the Cubs as a lack of offense mixed with subpar pitching did the Cubs in as they fell to the Marlins 3-1. Perhaps the more nerve-wracking trend is knowing that this team had a nearly identical record through the same number of games last season before going into a six-week offensive funk.

While there have been signs of that returning again, this has only been an eight-game sample size, so no one will get ahead of themselves quite yet. Coming off a start where Jameson Taillon allowed four homers against the Mets, you had to like his chances as he entered Wednesday with a 0.83 ERA against the Marlins, his lowest of any opponent.

For the most part, Taillon did what he always does against the Marlins, walking none and striking out seven across six innings while allowing four hits. Three of those four hits left the yard as Taillon has now allowed seven homers across his last two starts after allowing six in his first six starts.

Solo shots or not, that has to change going forward, as wins will be tough to come by when you allow that many homers. Putting the homers aside, Taillon was very good, especially early on, as he struck out four through two innings and was carving the Marlins up. Had it not been for another Kyle Stowers homer to put Miami on top for good, 1-0 in the second, who knows how things would've gone as the Cubs played catch-up from start to finish.

Stowers was just getting warmed up as he added a second homer in the fourth inning and his third homer of the series, as he hit better than .500 against the Cubs this week. Augustin Ramirez also had a homer during the fourth inning, as it was all Miami early on 3-0. Given how well the Cubs offense has played most of the season, a three-run cushion is nothing for this team to overcome, but with Ryan Weathers on the hill, three runs seemed like 10.

Making his first start of 2025, Weathers had the Cubs guessing all night, striking out five and allowing just one run as he looked even better than advertised. Apart from a Justin Turner single in the third, Weathers kept the Cubs offense in check until Seiya Suzuki led things off in the fourth with a solo shot to pull the Cubs within 3-1.

For Suzuki, that was his 11th homer of the season as he is now tied with Pete Crow-Armstrong for the team lead. As has been the case most of the season, the Cubs' offense doesn't need much time to get going, which everyone saw on Tuesday night when they scored three times in the ninth to walk off Miami.

With Weathers leaving the game after five innings, the time was now for the Cubs as they looked to do some damage off Calvin Faucher and the pen. What started with a check swing double from Kyle Tucker turned into a great scoring chance as the Carson Kelly two-out walk put a pair of runners on for Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Instead of his A-typical aggressive approach that has turned his season around, Crow-Armstrong chose to drop down on a bunt and despite popping the bunt up, PCA managed to reach base as the ball bounced in front of the shortstop for an infield single to load the bases. This was the situation the Cubs were waiting for, as Nico Hoerner has by far been the Cubs' best hitter with runners on base and one of the best in baseball.

While the Cubs lead baseball with a .289 average with runners in scoring position, Hoerner ranks near the top of the league at .423 in those situations, as he has also driven in 17. These are the situations he lives for, and sometimes that causes him to get way too aggressive as he swung at a pitch in the left-handed batter's box for strike three and killed the Cubs rally.

What was especially painful is that it was the last scoring opportunity for the Cubs the rest of the way as Dansby Swanson picked up the Cubs' final hit later in the game for what wound up being a 3-1 Marlins win. Following an off day on Thursday, the Cubs will welcome their crosstown Rival, the Chicago White Sox, to town for a weekend set as round one of the Crosstown Cup will get underway. The Cubs have yet to announce a starter for that game, but you could see Cade Horton making his first career start and Wrigley Field debut.