The Pittsburgh Pirates patiently waited six years for former No. 2 overall draft pick Jameson Taillon to make the major leagues.
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Taillon will make start No. 10 Thursday afternoon against the San Diego Padres after going 2-2 with a 3.29 ERA, 43 strikeouts and only six walks in 52 innings during his first nine starts.
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Josh Harrison, bottom, tries unsuccessfully to get around San Diego Padres catcher Derek Norris after being caught in a rundown between third and home in the fourth inning a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
The Pirates didn’t call up Taillon until two months into the season but, thanks to several reshufflings of their rotation, he’s now settled into what effectively is the No. 2 man in their rotation.
“Pitch efficiency continues to be first and foremost for me”, manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s very, very attractive. He’s pounding the zone”.
Taillon has improved his two-seam fastball and is developing his changeup. “I’m comfortable right now just kind of playing it start-by-start”, he said.
Taillon’s eight-inning outing matched the longest of his still-short career; he gave up only two hits over eight innings in beating the New York Mets 4-0 on June 14, in his second career start.
One of those hits was collected by Poway native Nick Noonan who made his Padres debut.
Tony Watson struck out Jabari Blash for his fourth save in five chances after Neftali Feliz put two runners on in the ninth with a Myers single and a walk.
Freese hit an RBI double in the third and scored on a single by Gregory Polanco.
The Pirates managed only one run on four singles in the fourth as they had a pair of runners thrown out at the plate, one on an unsuccessful double steal attempt, but Harrison did drive in a run with a single. Friedrich pitched a season-high seven innings in his last start August 5 vs. the Philadelphia Phillies, permitting four runs and five hits.
“I felt pretty good, just would be happier trying to go deeper into games, obviously, and would like to knock out some of those big-run innings”, he said. Jankowski went 0-for-3 to end his nine-game hitting streak.
“We talked this morning to come out with some energy and get going”, Freese said.
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Taillon then joined Chris Mueller and Jack Zduriencik on Pirates Postgame and said it was moments like this that drove him through his rehab following mutliple injuries last season.
