LOS ANGELES — By the fourth inning Friday night, the Dodgers already had pinned a four spot on Cubs starter Jameson Taillon, with Will Smith’s three-run home run in the third the most damaging blow.
On a normal night, there almost surely would have been stirring in the Cubs’ bullpen, especially with the offense being held hostage by Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan, who struck out seven of the first Cubs batters.
But on this night, crickets.
It didn’t take NCIS: Los Angeles to uncover the reason why.
Before the game, the Cubs announced that left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar was put on the 15-day injured list with a strained left hamstring. He becomes the ninth pitcher since the start of spring training to be lost to injury.
The roll call of the walking wounded: Shelby Miller (elbow), Jordan Wicks (elbow), Porter Hodge (elbow), Cade Horton (elbow), Phil Maton (knee), Hunter Harvey (triceps), Ethan Roberts (cut finger), Daniel Palencia (left oblique) and Thielbar.
On top of that, manager Craig Counsell used five relievers in the 8-7, 10-inning victory over the Phillies on Thursday.
There comes a time when you run out of bodies. This sure looked like a classic case of Taillon being asked to take one for the team.
“Injuries add up at some point, right?” Counsell said. “And we’ve lost a lot of bodies, and it’s hard when you’ve lost that many bodies, it gets hard to keep replacing them with the same quality, frankly, so the guys have done a great job.
“They’ve done a heck of a job,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘And frankly, we’ve got some tired guys right now as well, but they’re doing a heck of a job. And so we have not sacrificed any quality at this point. In my eyes, these guys have pitched great. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve been able to put togethe
