Samardzija gets extra rest, extra tough in win
The Cubs wanted to give Jeff Samardzija one extra day of rest.
With Tuesday’s rainout in Cincinnati, Samardzija got yet another day. It was all good in the end Wednesday night, as Samardzija turned in another solid outing in a 3-1 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Samardzija, the pleasant surprise of the Cubs’ starting rotation so far, worked 7 innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball as he improved to 3-1 with a 3.41 ERA.
Three of Samardzija’s 5 starts this season have been quality starts. He’s gone 8 innings, 6 and 7 in those quality starts, giving up a total of 2 earned runs in those starts for an ERA of 0.78.
As far as the extra rest goes, Samardzija seemed a little antsy Tuesday, getting in a little extra throwing after the game was called.
“I was ready to go last night, getting my mind ready to pitch,” he said on the WGN-TV postgame show.
Body followed mind Wednesday, as Samardzija struck out two in the first inning, one on a dropped-third strike, allowing Joey Votto to reach first base. He walked Votto with one out in the fourth and gave up his first hit to the next batter, Brandon Phillips, who singled.
A run scored on a lengthy double play, but that was it. Samardzija finished with 2 walks and 1 strikeout, and he was still hitting mid- and upper-90s (mph) on the radar gun in the late innings.
“I’m just going to stay on my toes here,” Samardzija told reporters. “When they tell me I can pitch and they let me loose, then I’m going to go pitch.”
Samardzija did his pitching on a warm night, with a gametime temperature of 87 degrees.
“It feels nice to have warm weather, I’ll tell you that much,” he said. “You don’t have to warm up extra time and late in the game you can keep it going and your arm still feels good. It’s amazing what a difference it makes. Late in the game like that, I wanted to get back on my fastball and pound the zone.”
Samardzija got offensive help from first baseman Bryan LaHair and third baseman Ian Stewart. LaHair hit his sixth homer of the year leading off the second. Stewart, whose batting average is .173, lined a shot over the wall in right off Bronson Arroyo with two outs in the fourth.
Manager Dale Sveum told reporters before the game that he was going to stick with Stewart, noting he had hit a lot of balls hard with nothing to show.
“The people who have been at the games and all my teammates know I’ve been hitting some balls hard,” Stewart told the media. “A lot of at-’em balls, you can say, although that’s kind of cliché. I just feel like if I keep getting in my work with Rudy (hitting coach Jaramillo) and with Dale, those are going to turn into basehits and extra-base hits. If I can get hot, it will just help the team even more.”
Samardzija got relief from Rafael Dolis in the eighth and Carlos Marmol in the ninth. Marmol converted his second save with a 1-2-3 inning, with 2 strikeouts.