Samardzija will still start again - at Iowa

Jeff Samardzija spent Thursday morning throwing off the bullpen mound, just a few hours after giving up 8 hits and 7 runs in his first major-league start.

"You get stuff on your mind," Samardzija said. "Usually, the best thing to do is just to get out and kind of revert back to what you do. It's nice to go out there on the mound and throw a little bit and throw some pitches and kind of look at a couple things."

After Samardzija got back inside, he was off to Class AAA Iowa, where he was optioned to make room for reliever Justin Berg.

Samardzija will go back into Iowa's starting rotation, where he worked earlier this year before coming up and working mostly out of the bullpen for the big club.

The back-and-forth nature of this year has made it a frustrating one for the highly touted prospect out of Notre Dame.

"It's just been frustrating all the way around," he said. "I'm not mad or anything. It's all about results. You need to go out there and get things done regardless of whatever the situation is.

"If you don't do that, this happens. I'm a pretty down-to-earth dude. I know what's going on. You got to make plays."

Samardzija is 1-2 with a 7.81 ERA in 17 games. Samardzija likely will head back to the pen if he's a September call-up, but he may be a starter down the road.

"I think that's the future," he said. "There's still a couple months left in the season. We'll worry about that in the off-season."

Lilly ready: Lefty Ted Lilly returned from a successful rehab start at Class A Peoria, where he threw 5 scoreless innings Wednesday night. The plan is for Lilly to start next Monday at San Diego.

The de facto ace of the pitching staff has been on the disabled list since late July with left-shoulder inflammation. He also had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

"From a health standpoint, I feel really good," he said. "It was definitely the right decision for me to go down there and pitch in a real game where there is some adrenaline. It doesn't matter that it's even in Single-A. When runners get on base, and it's a 1-run game ... you tend to put a little more effort into pitches than I would had I been throwing extra bullpen sessions or something like that."

While at Peoria, Lilly made sure to spend time with the young players. Peoria features outfielder Brett Jackson and infielder DJ LeMahieu, this year's top two draft picks. The catcher is Michael Brenly, son of TV analyst Bob Brenly.

"It's amazing to me," Lilly said. "I don't remember when I was 20-21 years old the players were as good as that club, the talent that's on that team. Obviously, we'll see how they continue to progress, but there's a lot of talent there, certainly including Michael. He's a pretty polished young player. Obviously, he knows the game really well, but he's got a really good approach. Defensively, he's not far off."

Footloose: Lefty Tom Gorzelanny threw Thursday and said his sore right foot won't keep him out of Saturday's start against his former team, the Pirates.

He was hit by a batted ball Monday at Colorado, cutting his start to 11/3 innings.

"There's still a little bit of soreness in there, but not enough to get worried about it," he said. "I'll be ready to go."