Kovacevic: Taillon's ace card, McDavid, Artie

Knowing Jameson Taillon, he probably hadn't stepped a single stride off that mound in Cincinnati before seeking out the first positive.

Four runs and six hits over six-plus innings?

Eh. Happens to everyone, right?

"No, really, it does," Taillon was telling me this week at PNC Park, where he'll retake the mound today, 7:05 p.m., against the Cardinals. "That's what I was telling myself: That's where it bottoms out. Right there."

He lowered his right hand to about knee height to stress the point.

"Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, all those guys, you look at their game-by-game lines at the end of the season, and they've all got one or two of those," he continued. "But that's it. You don't go any lower. That's the floor."

Something to build off?

"Something to build off."

I share this not to elevate Taillon into any deGrom/Scherzer discussion. Rather, it's to underscore yet again the extraordinary confidence and ambition he's got to go with all that talent. And why not? He's 27 years old, he's never been healthier and, after the 2018 he just enjoyed, after all he's overcome in life, he's got every right to all that faith.

• It's not premature public hysteria. Not this time. Because it's not about losing two of the first three games. It's not even about how the Pirates lost those. Rather, it's that there'd been a painfully easy identification of what the problems would be -- infield defense and everything about the new shortstop -- and that the front office brazenly failed to address those.

• On a similar chord, it's not about pace of play. It's not that the game lasted four hours, 50 minutes, or that young people can't sit still that long. No, it's that a pathetic 47 balls were put in play out of 429 pitches. That's a ball being hit somewhere into fair territory once every six minutes, 10 seconds.

No clock is needed. Lower the mound. Let the hitters hit again.

• Neal Huntington's never been more right than in his scathing criticism of Sports Illustrated's quoting of anonymous scouts and, in turn, those scouts speaking in racially tinged tones.

Huntington's a man of principle on many issues, and I've long admired that, but this still stood out. I'd never cast a broad brush, as most scouts I've met are fine humans. But I've also heard a lot of this same garbage, especially from the older guard and, within that, especially as it relates to Latin American players. It's stomach-turning.

• For the record: We'll occasionally quote people anonymously at this site, too, including baseball scouts. But our policy is that every anonymous quote has to be cleared by our editor, Dale Lolley, with him being told who spoke it. I had to clear one of those myself with Dale just last week.

• Oh, come on, no one thought the Penguins were going to rev it up for the Red Wings, did they?

I'm kidding. Or not.

Thing is, the hit that's taken is more than a two-day delay on the playoff clinching. Given that they're two points behind the Islanders -- who hold the tiebreaker -- with two games for each to play, it's looking immensely likely that they'll be off to Uniondale next week for Games 1 and 2, where the environment is expected to be bonkers in that tiny old barn.

Anyone else not have a problem with that?

Nope, me neither.

• I left the Canadiens for dead while up in Montreal a month ago. Clearly underestimated all that will. Taking down the Jets, then the Lightning last night, 4-2, is heady stuff.

Now contrast that with the Blue Jackets basically laying down at home to the Bruins, 6-2, last night, and that's all anyone needs to see who's more deserving of that final spot in the East.

Or, as John Tortorella elegantly worded it to a reporter in Columbus who'd asked about a couple bounces that went Boston's way: "We got what we deserved."

• Connor McDavid needed to not go to Edmonton in the first place. He needed to pull a John Elway/Eric Lindros. I wrote that the day he famously cringed upon the Oilers winning the lottery. I've written it every time I've covered a game of his, and I'll write it again now that he's piped up about missing the playoffs for the third time in his four NHL seasons:

Connor speaks with the media following tonight's #Oilers defeat in Vegas. pic.twitter.com/16lyeShomd

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) April 2, 2019

To clip that down: "It wasn't good enough all year. We did our best to stay in the fight. It's been an insane season. Coach/GM change. My frustration level is really, really high. I'm not happy about it. We have a lot of crap to figure out."

That crap won't be figured out. The Oilers continue to be owned and operated by the same people. The only people who could repeatedly convert a seemingly endless wave of No. 1 overall picks into perennial playoff absences.

But good for McDavid. I didn't know he had this in him. He's always known how special he is, and now it's finally clear he knows he needs to get the hell out. Make no mistake: That was a threat he issued up there, in that he has to realize by now they're incapable of fixing their massive mess in short order.

• It hurts all of hockey, not just the Oilers. Same way it hurt hockey to have Mario Lemieux sit out the playoffs his first four seasons, and five of his first six. These are great, great years for a young player. There's no such thing as rebuilding in that setting. The moment you're blessed to get one, you load up the next morning. That's what the Penguins did after the Sidney Crosby lottery.

• What if Artie Burns doesn't stink?

Of all Mike Tomlin's remarks to media covering the NFL Meetings last week in Phoenix, the one that might have intrigued me most was this when he was asked if he was worried about Burns' lack of development: "I am. We’ll see where that leads us. Obviously, we’ve had an opportunity from a staff perspective to visit with him a few times this offseason. I know he’s excited about getting started, and growing and developing and putting better tape out there in 2019."

Pressed as to which way his arrow's going: "It hadn’t been going up and that’s just realistic. But he has an opportunity to do something about that."

This will no doubt be met with derision by the fan base. It probably should be. Burns' performance was embarrassing last season. But there's something to be spoken for giving a 23-year-old -- and yeah, he's that young -- former first-round pick a final shot. Not to start, of course. Joe Haden and Steven Nelson will do that. But to at least get involved, maybe in some specialty role.

Credit to Tomlin for this and for apparently making the extra effort to visit Burns for a personal touch.

• See everyone -- and I mean every last one of you -- at the yard tonight!