Cubs' Samardzija off to a good start
It's one thing for Jeff Samardzija to have “willed” himself into the Cubs' starting rotation with a strong spring.
He seems to know the tough part will be staying there and succeeding for the long haul.
Although Sunday's start against the Nationals was just one start, it was a huge one for Samardzija.
The big right-hander came within an out of a complete game, but he got the victory as the Cubs held on to beat Washington 4-3 at Wrigley Field.
For the Cubs, it was their first victory of the season after 2 losses and their first of the Theo Epstein regime in the front office.
The 27-year-old Samardzija got credit for the win as he worked 8 innings, giving up 4 hits and 3 runs, only 1 earned.
Samardzija looked to have the complete game well in hand as Ryan Zimmerman grounded to shortstop Starlin Castro with two outs in the ninth inning and the Cubs up 4-1.
But Castro's throwing error extended the inning. Adam LaRoche then crushed a home run to right field, forcing manager Dale Sveum to turn to embattled closer Carlos Marmol, who walked a batter before getting Xavier Nady on a popout to end the game.
For years, Samardzija has heard that he'd never be a successful major-league pitcher, let alone a starter. After a breakout season in the bullpen last year, he defied the odds in spring training and won the No. 3 spot in the rotation.
“I really feel like I have a chip on my shoulder just because I've talked a big game about wanting to start, and I wanted to start and made it public,” said Samardzija, who threw 110 pitches, including first-pitch strikes to all but five of the 31 batters he faced.
“I don't want to look like an idiot. I just want to come out and do what I need to do and be in the zone and let the guys behind me work.”
Samardzija did just that, as he got nice defensive plays from third baseman Ian Stewart, center fielder Marlon Byrd and left fielder Alfonso Soriano, who also had a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single.
But Samardzija was dealing all day. He mixed all of his pitches well and was hitting the upper 90s (mph) with his power fastball.
Most impressive, he walked no one while striking out eight. One of the big question marks surrounding Samardzija was whether he could be efficient enough to start and go at least 6 innings.
He took a pitch count of 90 into the ninth inning and had pitch counts of 10 in the third, 9 in the fourth and 8 in the fifth.
“I think every day, that's what I'm going to look at first,” he said of the walks total. “I always want to attack the zone and not give them too many free passes … That's a great place to start for me, to understand you keep guys off the base and let them earn it.”
Manager Dale Sveum found himself in a tough spot in the ninth after Samardzija got two quick outs followed by the throwing error.
Marmol was coming off two bad games, and Sveum heard boos from the crowd of 31,973 when he went out to visit Samardzija. After LaRoche's homer, that was it.
“He said the right things when I went out there,” Sveum said. “One hesitation and I think he would have been out of the game. Maybe there should have been a hesitation.
“No, he pitched great. For him never in a big-league game to get that far in, it was some tough decisions, but he really didn't have a lot of stress today, didn't have to throw over to first much.
“He's a big guy, a big horse. Hopefully he bounces back from that because that's not something I really wanted to do, but he was throwing the ball so well that it was tough to take him out.”
bmiles@dailyherald.com