Taylor used groundouts to strand the bases loaded in Game 5

Chase DeLauter hit Grant Taylor’s 82.8 mph curve to first baseman Munetaka Murakami with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning. Murakami threw home to retire Petey Halpin. Taylor then obtained a Jo Adell groundout to end the inning, preventing Cleveland from adding to its two-run lead.

Taylor pitched one scoreless inning in Chicago’s 2–0 ALDS Game 5 loss at Progressive Field on October 10. He inherited Halpin at second, faced five batters, issued two walks and threw 13 physical pitches. One of the walks was intentional and involved no physical pitch, a distinction necessary to make the complete ledger agree with the official total.

Unlike his regular-season relief record, this appearance contained no misses. Three balls put into play became three groundball outs. The way Taylor cleared the inning therefore came through contact and defense, after his own walk and an intentional walk expanded the threat beyond the runner he inherited.

Breaking balls carried a short appearance

Taylor threw six sliders, three curves, three four-seamers and one sinker. Sliders made up 46.2% of his pitches, compared with 16.4% in a baseline of 1,272 physical pitches over 56 regular-season relief appearances for Chicago. Four-seamers fell from 43.2% to 23.1%. Thirteen pitches can produce large share changes from only a few choices, so the chart gives counts beside every percentage.

Cleveland made four physical attempts without a miss, compared with a 29.4% whiff rate in Taylor’s season sample. His three four-seamers averaged 99.0 mph, against 98.0 in that baseline, but none drew a swing. Higher measured speed therefore supplied no direct evidence of a fastball miss in this outing.

Taylor obtained three called strikes, two on sliders and one on a curve. The DeLauter confrontation began with a 99.2 mph fastball in the dirt, followed by an 85.1 mph curve for a called strike and the 82.8 mph curve put into play. The resulting forceout depended on where the ball was fielded and the play made at home, not on a strikeout finish.

The three contacts had measured exit speeds of 67.1, 82.0 and 88.7 mph. None met the 95 mph hard-hit threshold, and their average was 79.3. Those are useful observations from three balls, rather than proof of repeatable weak-contact skill. The regular-season sample included 188 contacts, with 187 measured exit speeds, and is much broader than this inning.

The inning’s traffic was partly his own

After Brayan Rocchio’s first-pitch groundout moved Halpin to third, Taylor walked Steven Kwan and José Ramírez was intentionally walked. That loaded the bases with one out. Only Halpin was an inherited runner; Kwan and Ramírez reached during Taylor’s appearance. Saying he inherited the bases loaded would misstate the sequence.

DeLauter’s forceout kept the bases loaded with two outs, and Adell grounded to third baseman Miguel Vargas, who threw to Murakami for the final out. All three runners were stranded. The ledger lists the physical pitches against Rocchio, Kwan, DeLauter and Adell, while the intentional walk is recorded separately in the methods so that the fifth batter is not lost.

Taylor’s workload chart contains one inning, with three measured four-seamers, so it cannot show a speed trend across innings. His earlier series appearances required 42 pitches on October 3, seven on October 5 and 18 without an out on October 8. These postseason records are separate from the regular-season relief comparison.

The result demonstrates a successful contact-based escape after Taylor added to the traffic. It does not show that his usual miss-generating repertoire had disappeared. The next useful comparison would ask whether slider-heavy use persists over more batters and whether misses return alongside the favorable contact outcomes observed here.