NEW YORK — Jameson Taillon’s phone lights up all the time with texts about his Chicago Cubs teammate Mike Tauchman.

Taillon’s close friend and former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Nick Kingham spent last season playing with Tauchman in the Korea Baseball Organization, where the Cubs outfielder’s career got back on track far from Major League Baseball.

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Kingham’s texts to Taillon often follow the same theme:

“I’m not surprised.”

“I knew he was going to come back to MLB.”

“If he got a shot, he was going to do well.”

Taillon first got a glimpse of what has made Tauchman so successful this year when they played together in 2021 with the New York Yankees.

“He’s intense and he’s a gamer and he loves the game,” Taillon said. “He’s super prepared. He puts in the work and he’s studying pitchers. He really works at his craft.”

Tauchman’s methodical, grinder approach set up his go-ahead solo home run in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s 3-2 win against the New York Mets. He worked a full count and took advantage of a fastball that Mets reliever Drew Smith left up in the zone for the opposite-field homer.

Adbert Alozlay locked down the win, finishing it off by starting a game-ending double play. The Cubs (59-55) go for the series win Wednesday night with Kyle Hendricks on the mound.

“Sometimes there’s a specific lane that I’m looking for,” Tauchman said of his approach. “Sometimes it’s being able to eliminate a pitch that that particular pitcher doesn’t throw for a strike very often. You’re just playing the odds sometimes, and ultimately it’s about execution.”

Moments before the first pitch Tuesday, the Mets’ PitchCom wasn’t working. The technical issues prompted a slight delay, and once it was determined the Mets couldn’t get it to work, the Cubs were informed they also would not be allowed to use the device.

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Aside from scrambling before the bottom of the first for a sign card to use with runners on second base, Taillon was unfazed by going back to the traditional hand signs from the catcher.

Mets slugger Pete Alonso’s two-run homer in the first stood as Taillon’s lone blemish in another quality start. He retired 16 consecutive batters to end the type of dominant outing an overworked Cubs bullpen desperately needed.

“It’s just a compound effect of once you have a good outing, it starts building,” Taillon said. “The confidence starts building and I feel like that carries over into my work and my delivery and my game planning, and all that just gives me a little bit more conviction behind what I’m doing.”

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Over the past month, Taillon has been the Cubs’ second-best starter and given them what they envisioned when they inked him to a four-year deal in the offseason. He owns a 2.17 ERA in his last six starts, pitching into at least the sixth in all of them with the Cubs winning each of those starts.

His best stretch of the season has coincided with that of the Cubs, who sit 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers after Tuesday’s victory.

“I mean, that’s the benefits of a baseball season, I guess, that there’s 162 (games), so I kept telling myself that ‘there’s time, there’s time, there’s time,’” Taillon said. “Coming to an organization and not being able to contribute for a while was tough, but I just tried to show up, be a good teammate, make an impact in other parts of the game and in the locker room and stuff.

“I knew my time was coming, so hopefully I can just keep my head down and keep it going.”