Why Garza is mad at himself

MILWAUKEE — At the front end of Saturday night's game, the Cubs had a guy who might have thrown too many strikes.

At the back end, they had a guy who couldn't seem to throw any strikes, although the game was out of hand by that time.

The guy at the front end, Matt Garza, blamed nobody but himself for a 6-0 loss to the Brewers before a sellout crowd of 42,478 at Miller Park.

The Brewers' Prince Fielder hit an 0-2 pitch from Garza in the first inning for an RBI double. In the third, it was another 0-2 pitch and a 2-run double. And in the fifth, Fielder hit yet another 0-2 offering for a double to bring home a run.

“They beat me on a couple of pitches, and a lot of the other pitches they hit were mistakes,” said Garza, who fell to 0-1 with a 5.68 ERA after working 5 innings. “There were at-bats to Prince where I got him 0-2 ... and I threw hangers. That's inexcusable. You get a like that in a situation, especially a bad situation, I'm supposed to put him away, and I didn't do that today. I got guys in good spots, and I didn't put them away.”

Garza is a guy who pounds the strike zone. In 12 innings so far this year, he's walked only 3, but he's also given up 20 hits while striking out 20.

Is he throwing too many strikes?

“If you don't execute on 0-2, you're normally going to be in a little bit of trouble against a hitter that good,” said Cubs manager Mike Quade, whose team is 4-4. “Garz knows that. It's not just about being in the zone. If you're splitting the plate, that's probably not good, either.”

Both Quade and Garza agreed that Garza's “soft stuff” beat him.

“I'm a fastball guy, and 6 of their 8 hits are breaking-ball pitches or off-speed pitches,” Garza said. “That's uncalled for. That's not my style. That's not who I am. Something's going to change. I haven't had bad outings, but I don't give up 20 hits in two games. That's not me.”

The Cubs did nothing offensively against Milwaukee lefty Chris Narveson. They loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning, but Carlos Pena struck out.

At the other end of the pitching spectrum, reliever Jeff Samardzija walked four in the bottom of the eighth, as just 13 of the 31 pitches he threw were strikes.

“I sound like a broken record, but command is the deal,” Quade said. “He'll be as good as his command allows. You can't pitch from behind people up here. You've got to be able to make pitches, not just throw strikes, and he's working on that.”

Aside from that, the Cubs suffered a minor scare in the eighth when shortstop Starlin Castro took a throw from catcher Geovany Soto off the side of his face while covering the bag on a stolen-base attempt. Castro said he was OK.

As far as the pitching goes, Garza said that's OK, too, and that the Cubs aren't pressing because starters Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner are out with injuries.

“I believe we are eight games into the season,” Garza said. “There are 154 more. I highly doubt any of us are pressing right now. It's not September. It's barely the second week of the season. There is no pressure.”