Sweet home, Chicago, for Samardzija

Jeff Samardzija has never said anything bad about Des Moines or the state of Iowa.

But upon his call-up from Class AAA Iowa to the Cubs on Thursday, he made it clear he'd rather be in the big leagues in the big town.

"As far as I'm concerned, you can just X it off the map, to tell you the truth," he said of Des Moines. "It's a great town. I don't want to put it down or anything, but if you have to put Des Moines and Chicago on a scale, I think it tips heavily to one side."

The Cubs made their roster moves official Thursday, recalling Samardzija from Iowa and designating reliever Luis Vizcaino for assignment. They'll have until the end of next week to trade or release Vizcaino, who was making $3.5 million this year.

Vizcaino pitched scoreless ball over four games this season, but opinions were mixed as to how good his stuff was. On top of that, the Cubs see Samardzija as someone who can help righty Aaron Heilman work in the sixth and seventh innings to bridge the gap to setup man Carlos Marmol and closer Kevin Gregg.

Samardzija was in Iowa's starting rotation, and he was throwing the ball well. He made his big-league debut last July as a reliever and worked the rest of the way out of the bullpen. In Thursday's 7-1 loss to the Reds, he pitched the ninth inning, giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. However, he said he's a different pitcher from what he was a year ago.

"Totally different, I think," he said. "Last year I was working off my fastball, which I still want to do. But I just throwing the other pitches to just let them know I have them. Now, I throw them trying to get outs with them. It's a totally different mentality. The splitter has become, instead of just a put-out pitch, it's become a setup pitch, too. I don't think we're quite there yet, but getting up here and pitching against these guys will help a lot in developing the pitches."

This and that: Manager Lou Piniella moved Ryan Theriot up to the No. 2 spot in the order and said he may keep him there to take advantage of Theriot's hot hitting. Theriot went 1-for-4 with the only RBI and is batting .365. Starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano saw his personal five-game winning streak against the Reds snapped. ... Aramis Ramirez extended a hitting streak to six games. He's 11-for-25 in that stretch. ... Alfonso Soriano extended a hitting streak to 10 games.