Blue Jays-Cubs Make-Up Game Could Be Most Emotional of Season
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One of legendary Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray's signature calls was "It might be. It could be! It is! A Home Run!"
We are at the "It Might Be" stage, but Thursday's pitching matchup at Wrigley Field could well be a home run!
Kevin Gausman vs. Jameson Taillon.
Gausman for the Cubs.
Taillon for the Blue Jays.
On June 21, when rain soaked Chicago and postponed the Blue Jays-Cubs series finale, if I had said that would be the pitching matchup for the makeup game in August, you might have said, "Meh."
After all, Gausman had just been rocked by the Cubs on a sun-splashed Friday afternoon two days earlier in perhaps the worst start of his career. He allowed a career-high seven first-inning earned runs, lasted just two innings, gave up seven hits, and issued four free passes.
His ERA rose from 3.41 to 4.04.
The Blue Jays lost 16-2.
The following day, Toronto beat the Cubs to move to 38-39. The day after the rainout Toronto would move to 39-39. The Blue Jays were at .500, on the cusp of getting some of their injured players back, and looked poised to make a run.
Instead, they have gone 13-21, are in last place in the AL East, and waved the white flag on 2026 Sunday night by trading Gausman to — you guessed it — the Chicago Cubs.
The makeup game for that rainout is on Thursday at Wrigley, and if Gausman stays on turn, he would start for the Cubs against his old Blue Jays teammates.
With Gausman now a Cub, Toronto will need a starter for Thursday's game. Enter Jameson Taillon, acquired from — you guessed it — the Chicago Cubs over the weekend.
Like his new club, Taillon has had a disappointing and injury-plagued season. His ERA is 5.92, and over his last two starts since coming off the injured list, he has allowed 11 runs in 8 1/3 innings.
Taillon missed over a month, including the series between the Cubs and Blue Jays, with a strained left hamstring. The Cubs designated him for assignment on July 27 and Toronto acquired him for either a player to be named later or cash considerations.
For Gausman, it would be an emotional beginning to his time in Chicago after an emotional ending to his time in Toronto. In a going-away party with his co-workers and 41,819 of his most adoring fans at Rogers Centre, Gausman patted his heart as he walked off the field and was so emotional he needed to head down into the tunnel to collect himself.
While not as successful with the Cubs as Gausman was with the Blue Jays, Taillon pitched in 98 games over his four years with the Cubs, 95 of them starts. He went 33-31 with a 4.21 ERA. Over his ten-year career, his .580 winning percentage tops Gausman's .488 mark.
The trade deadline is known for being 'hug watch' time. There will likely be plenty of hugs on Thursday between the two hurlers and their former teammates.
And then "It could be" one of the more fascinating pitching matchups of the 2026 baseball season.
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Adam Steinmetz writes about the Toronto Blue Jays for On SI. Adam is also the editor and publisher of the Boston Sunday Sports Section, a weekly digital publication covering the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins. A two-time winner of the Best Collegiate Sports Writer award in Philadelphia, he began his career with freelance work for The Philadelphia Daily News and The Palm Beach Post before building a successful career outside of journalism. He returned to sports writing last year, contributing to Pitcher List—including coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays—before launching Authorenticity on Substack, where he explores the human stories within baseball. The Boston Sunday Sports Section is his most ambitious project — the thinking fan’s modern Sunday Sports Section focused on the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins.