CHICAGO — When discussing the Cubs’ early-season schedule during Spring Training, starter Jameson Taillon was careful in his wording not to make too much of it. He described the pile of playoff-caliber teams looming in April as a good test and a chance to begin forging the identity of this Chicago squad.
As the calendar approaches May, Taillon continues to be cautious about the idea that the Cubs can relax at all, even as the schedule theoretically gets easier.
“I still don’t want to overcook it,” Taillon said after the Cubs’ 3-1, 10-inning loss to the Phillies on Sunday night. “In the big leagues, you just never know. You can run into a team with a bad record that’s playing well that can do damage and school you.
“I know back when I played with Pittsburgh, when we weren’t in the playoffs, we took a lot of pride in playing teams tough.”
The Cubs dropped two of three in this series against the Phillies, finishing a homestand against the D-backs, Dodgers and Philadelphia with a 5-3 showing. Back in Spring Training, when the only records to go on were preseason projections from various outlets, this was the perceived line in the sand between the early gauntlet and an easier stretch.
As Chicago heads into Monday’s off-day, the team sits atop the National League Central with a 17-12 ledger. That includes going 5-5 on the road against the D-backs, Dodgers and Padres and 9-5 at Wrigley Field against those same teams, plus the Phillies and Rangers. The Cubs also lost both games of the Tokyo Series to the Dodgers in Japan in mid-March.
That group of opponents has combined for a .571 winning percentage (80-60) to date. It drops slightly to a .560 rate when including the A’s, who the Cubs swept on the road earlier this month, too. The preseason projections on Fangraphs had those six teams with a .529 combined winning percentage for this season.
“The fact that we came out of the gate hot, played really good teams really well, is great,” Taillon said. “I also think we have a bit of a target on our back. We’re the Chicago Cubs and teams like it when we come to town. They want to beat us. There’s no time to step off the gas.”
In the finale of this series against the Phillies, Taillon and Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola locked horns for seven innings, limiting each lineup to just one run. It was a tightly-contested game that could have swung in either direction, but the Phillies pushed across a pair of runs in the 10th after Cubs reliever Julian Merryweather walked the bases loaded.
Following the one-day break, the Cubs head to Pittsburgh for three games and then the schedule hits another tough stretch. The North Siders will have a nine-game run between May 2-11 against the rival Brewers, a surprising Giants squad and the NL East-leading Mets.
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