SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Chicago Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon was placed on the 15-day injured list Wednesday because of a left groin injury that manager Craig Counsell doesn't believe will keep him down for long.
The move is retroactive to Monday, a day after Taillon exited having thrown just 62 pitches but went five innings for the win against the Angels in Anaheim. He was throwing a bullpen session Wednesday at Oracle Park and only 12-14 pitches in when he didn't feel quite right, Counsell said.
“It went pretty well but I think we're in a position where we're going to be safe here and to skip a start will probably be a good thing,” Counsell said. “I think it's just smart. He's got a little something going on an and we don't want to push it. There's a little something there that we think will resolve itself in five to seven days.”
Given Taillon's right calf strain that sidelined him in late June, the Cubs aren't taking a chance with him. Right-hander Javier Assad was recalled from Triple-A Iowa and he is set to start Saturday at Colorado.
This is the latest blow for what has been a beat-up rotation.
The 33-year-old Taillon is 9-6 with a 4.15 ERA over 19 starts this year spanning 106 1/3 innings.
Chicago also remains hopeful right-hander Michael Soroka will make an impact during the September playoff push with the club chasing Milwaukee in the NL Central. Soroka, acquired from Washington at the trade deadline, made just one start for the Cubs — tossing two innings against the Reds on Aug. 4 — before straining his pitching shoulder. He threw off a mound in San Francisco on Tuesday as he works his way back.
The Cubs have still somehow hung in there.
“Look, we've pitched well,” Counsell said. “We've pitched very well out of the starting rotation, no question about it. Everybody's responsible for that. Five guys have taken a pretty equal turn in that, and it's made us a consistent baseball team.”
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Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jameson Taillon delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jameson Taillon delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark.
Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said. The daytime temperature in the capital was -12 C (around 10 F). The streets were covered with ice, and the city rumbled with the noise from generators.
Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.
On Monday, the United States accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting, when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.
Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water in the freezing winter months over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
In Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Russian attack also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.
In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid, to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.
Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.
Ukraine’s military said domestically-produced drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant carries out design, manufacturing and testing of Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.
It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.
Katie Marie Davies contributed to this report from Manchester, England.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
