Jeff Samardzija leads Cubs past Cardinals 5-1
Jeff Samardzija wasn't dominant in his first big-league start of the season. But he was good enough to win.
Samardzija gutted out 52/3 shutout innings Monday night at Busch Stadium, and his teammates gave him some early support as the Cubs went on to beat the Cardinals 5-1 to push them to 7 games behind the Reds in the NL Central.
The 25-year-old Samardzija seemed to find himself as a starting pitcher at Class AAA Iowa this summer after opening the season in the Cubs' bullpen.
Against the Cardinals, he labored through some long innings and wound up throwing 105 pitches, walking four and striking out one.
Samardzija was supposed to start Saturday at Florida, but he got the emergency start against the Cardinals after scheduled starter Carlos Silva came down with elbow tendinitis.
While it wasn't a make-or-break or even pivotal start for Samardzija, the Cubs did want to see how he'd do at the big-league level.
"We like Jeff; we still think Jeff is going to be a good major-league pitcher," general manager Jim Hendry told reporters in St. Louis. "It's important for him, I think, to see if he can finish off his starting situation this year in good fashion. That being said, we're not going to panic if he doesn't have a great start tonight."
Samardzija and catcher Geovany Soto each had RBI singles off lefty Jaime Garcia in the Cubs' 2-run second inning. Alfonso Soriano put the Cubs ahead 4-0 with a broken-bat 2-run single in the third.
Hendry also told reporters he's happy with the job manager Mike Quade is doing. The Cubs improved to 12-7 since Quade took over for Lou Piniella.
"I think he's doing an outstanding job; I couldn't be happier for him," Hendry said. "He's managing the game well, he's managing the personnel well, managing the people and the clubhouse well.
"I think the guys are playing hard for him. Obviously we're playing a lot of young guys and pitching a lot of young guys. Like I told him, I was never hung up on what our record would be.
"We're winning our share and getting improvement out of some of the young kids."
<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p>
<p class="News">Cubs 5, Cardinals 1</p>
<p class="News"><b>Making it count:</b> Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija endured a couple of long innings in running his pitch count to 105 over 52/3 innings. Here are his inning-by-inning pitch counts: 18 pitches/12 strikes; 13/9; 29/15; 6/6; 27/16; and 12/6.</p>
<p class="News"><b>One to go:</b> Catcher Geovany Soto singled three times and walked once. The walk was his 61st of the season, 1 shy of his career best, set in 2008. Soto's on-base percentage is .398.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Ouch:</b> Right fielder Tyler Colvin left the game in the fourth inning after being hit on the left elbow by a pitch from Jaime Garcia in the third.</p>
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<li><a href="/story/?id=407859">Cubs' Silva has elbow strain<span class="date"> [9/13/10]</span></a></li>
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