placed Cade Horton on the 15-day injured list<\/a> with a fractured right rib, which puts his entire postseason in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\u201cCade\u2019s been incredible,\u201d winning pitcher Jameson Taillon said after striking out eight and limiting the Cardinals to one run over six innings. \u201cHe picked us up a lot this year when I was down for a while, when Shota (Imanaga) was down for a while. So now it\u2019s our turn to try to pick him up and make sure he can hopefully play a part as we get going into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs (91-70) have not hosted a full-capacity crowd for a postseason game since 2018. Their last playoff appearance was a brief one after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when they scored one run during two losses to the Marlins. That bleak scene foreshadowed an organizational rebuild.<\/p>\n
In trying to secure home-field advantage \u2014 and while bracing for a Horton setback \u2014 the Cubs rearranged their rotation and moved up Taillon from Sunday\u2019s Game 162. Five days from now, Taillon (11-7, 3.68 ERA) could be starting an elimination game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been told anything, but I\u2019m definitely going to be prepared for anything,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the exact role will be, or what will be asked, but I\u2019ll make sure I\u2019m ready for it.\u201d \u2014 Patrick Mooney, Cubs beat writer<\/p>\n
Mets 5, Marlins 0New York pitching staff in good shape for Sunday<\/p>\n
Clay Holmes provided the Mets exactly what they needed and then some with a quality start. Despite appearing in Wednesday\u2019s game, he threw six scoreless innings Saturday. After spending the previous six seasons as a reliever, he made 31 starts, had a 3.53 ERA. But since mid-June, he threw six innings in a game just once (on Aug. 23). Undoubtedly, this was his best moment.<\/p>\n
After receiving length from Holmes, manager Carlos Mendoza went to relievers Brooks Raley (13 pitches), Tyler Rogers (11 pitches) and Edwin D\u00edaz (13 pitches) for one inning each. None of them pitched Friday. The Mets don\u2019t have a long list of great pitching options; it was imperative for their go-to arms not to be running on fumes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unknown yet who the Mets will start Sunday, though David Peterson and Sean Manaea are among the options. The biggest key, however, is that virtually the whole staff is available. \u2014 Will Sammon, Mets beat writer<\/p>\n
(Photo of Cubs\u2019 Michael Busch celebrating a home run: Geoff Stellfox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs will not only be in the postseason for the first time since 2020, but they\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1271,5048,1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-259924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago-cubs","9":"tag-cincinnati-reds","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-mets","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115278899196674085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}