Samardzija, White Sox come up short against Seattle
The Chicago Bears definitely need a wide receiver, and Jeff Samardzija is just a short drive away.
The Chicago White Sox will make a qualifying offer to Samardizja at the end of the season, and he'll eschew free agency and accept it.
Pardon the cynicism, but it is a very negative situation right now and Samardzija didn't have many answers after another rough start in Saturday night's marathon 7-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners at U.S. Cellular Field.
"It's not easy, but it's not an easy game," Samardzija said after a game that ran four hours and 16 minutes. "You usually learn a lot about yourself during stretches like this and you improve as a person, you improve as a baseball player and you keep going."
Samardzija had yet another rough first inning, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk. Kyle Seager's 2-run homer was the big blow.
In 27 first innings this season, Samardzija has allowed 23 earned runs. That is a 7.67 ERA.
"You know, I don't know," Samardzija said of his early misfortune. "I don't really have an answer for that. You can't really control when you give the runs up. It's just the same routine I've done for years. It's just a pitch here and a pitch there that we need to improve on and pay attention to and then we go from there."
Keeping the ball down has been another problem, and it cost Samardzija (8-11) in the first inning.
"Again, it was a crooked-number homer and it seems to repeat in what we're saying here," he said. "Obviously, it's unfortunate and it needs to stop happening. I just have to get that ball down going in. You leave it out over the plate and Seager hits it out, that's it."
Samardzija, who wound up pitching 5⅔ innings against the Mariners and gave up 5 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks, has to be happy about making his final appearance of the month.
In 6 August starts, he was 0-6 with an 8.74 ERA.
"You go back and look at your career and there has been times like this for me when it hasn't been easy, 2009 and 2010 were tough years for me," Samardzija said. "That's when you go back to it and remember how you came out of it and what you did to come out of it and it always comes back to the same thing, hard work and commitment and the commitment to be good at the game.
"That's what it's all about and I'm going to keep doing the same thing I always do, work hard and we'll be ready to go in five days."
Samardizja said his brutal August had nothing to do with ill health.
"No, I feel good," he said. "Everything's as is. It feels great, throw all the same."
Trailing 7-2 in the eighth inning, the Sox rallied back with 4 runs but wound up falling short.
"We had a couple of (rallies)," manager Robin Ventura said. "We had some earlier in the game. We get the bases loaded a few times. You would like to get a little more out of it. We didn't get it."