Results tagged ‘ Jeff Samardzija ’
4/2 Snow day
It was snowing before the first pitch Monday at PNC Park and Jeff Samardzija went out to peek at the conditions before his first Opening Day start. He joked that it reminded him of one of his high school games when he was pitching for Valparaiso vs. Michigan City. On Monday, the snow cleared, the sun came out, and Samardzija and the Cubs won, 3-1.
“What a beautiful day to play baseball,” Samardzija said.
Several of the Cubs’ Latin players, some who have never seen snow, ran out to the field to take pictures before the game. They won’t have to deal with snow on Wednesday but it will be cold in Pittsburgh, with temps expected in the 30s for the night game at PNC Park. Bundle up.
– Carrie Muskat
4/1 Extra bases
* The first game was a good day for Anthony Rizzo, who was razzed by his teammates this spring for the lack of home runs.
“Guys were calling me ‘Campana,’” he said, referring to former Cubs outfielder Tony Campana, known for his speed, not his power. “You don’t try to hit home runs but you get guys chirping at you, and it’s nice to get it out of the way and just win.”
With one out in the Cubs’ first, Starlin Castro singled and Rizzo sent A.J. Burnett’s first pitch 438 feet to right-center, the ball landing behind the bleacher seats. Rizzo was one of six Cubs making their first Opening Day starts, and knows the importance of getting off to a good start.
“It’s one-game playoffs every day for 162-plus [games], hopefully, and we just have to play hard,” Rizzo said. “Everyone has to have each other’s back. I think when everyone gets each other’s back, everyone will get emotional and the emotion will carry us all year.”
* Jeff Samardzija gave up two hits over eight innings on Opening Day Monday. Of the 100 Cubs Opening Day games since 1914, the only Chicago pitcher to go at least eight innings and give up two or fewer hits in the season opener was Lon Warneke on April 17, 1934. Warneke threw a complete game, one-hit shutout that day in a 6-0 win over the Reds.
According to baseball historian Ed Hartig, there were four Opening Days when a Cubs starter threw at least eight scoreless innings: April 12, 1933 (Warneke); April 17, 1934 (Warneke); April 19, 1944 (Hank Wyse); and April 9, 1974 (Bill Bonham).
* Japanese right-hander Kyuji Fujikawa picked up a save in his first appearance with the Cubs, and is the first pitcher to do so with the team since Todd Wellemeyer on May 15, 2003.
* The Triple-A Iowa Cubs will have 18 players with Major League experience on their roster. Lefties Chris Rusin and Brooks Raley return to the rotation. Rusin led the Iowa team in wins (8), starts (25), and strikeouts (94) last year, and will start the season opener Thursday Albuquerque. Right-handers Drew Carpenter, Barret Loux, and Nick Struck round out the starting rotation.
– Carrie Muskat
3/31 Cubs Opening Day lineup
Here’s the projected Cubs lineup for Monday’s season opener against the Pirates:
CF David DeJesus
SS Starlin Castro
1B Anthony Rizzo
LF Alfonso Soriano
RF Nate Schierholtz
C Welington Castillo
3B Luis Valbuena
2B Brent Lillibridge
RHP Jeff Samardzija
3/31 Samardzija ready to go
It’s a good thing Jeff Samardzija got some sleep Saturday night. He didn’t expect to rest too much Sunday night prior to his first Opening Day start for the Cubs.
“That’s OK,” Samardzija said after playing catch at drizzly PNC Park in preparation for the season opener on Monday against the Pirates. “I got a lot of good sleep [Saturday] night. I work on the 48-hour plan.”
The right-hander is optimistic about the Cubs’ outlook this season.
“These last few games, I’ve stuck around and watched the whole team for nine innings,” Samardzija said. “I like our depth, I like our versatility. I think we’ve got a lot of different guys who play a lot of different positions and can hit in a lot of different spots in the lineup.
“I think we have a good handful of guys who can take a game over themselves, guys like [Starlin] Castro and [Anthony] Rizzo and [Welington Castillo] and obviously, [Alfonso] Soriano. [David] DeJesus is going to do his thing at the top of the lineup. Those things really allow you to come every day with a good chance to win the ballgmae.”
The Cubs open the season with three games against the Pirates, then face the Braves in Atlanta. They need to get off to a good start, Samardzija said.
“I think it’s really important for every team — especially for this team with a lot of new guys and new camaraderie going on and everybody getting to know each other,” he said. “There’s no easier way to make that seamless transition than to win some ballgames. I think we do that, and get off on the right foot, get back home and open our home series and go from there.”
The Cubs play their home opener April 8 against the Brewers.
– Carrie Muskat
3/31 Final 25-man roster
Here’s the Cubs’ final 25-man roster, which will be updated on Monday when Darwin Barney goes on the disabled list. Hisanori Takahashi, who turns 38 on Tuesday, secured the last spot in the bullpen and gives the Cubs another lefty besides James Russell. In nine games this spring, including two starts, Takahashi gave up nine runs on 21 hits over 18 1/3 innings.
Steve Clevenger made the Cubs’ Opening Day roster last year as the backup catcher, but will be used more as a left-handed bat off the bench. He can be valuable in a double switch, stepping in for catchers Welington Castillo or Dioner Navarro, and also sub at first base if needed. Clevenger batted .370 this spring, and was 8-for-14 against left-handed pitchers.
Here’s the Opening Day roster:
Pitchers
RHP Jeff Samardzija
RHP Edwin Jackson
LHP Travis Wood
RHP Scott Feldman
RHP Carlos Villanueva
RHP Carlos Marmol
RHP Kyuji Fujikawa
RHP Shawn Camp
LHP James Russell
RHP Michael Bowden
RHP Hector Rondon
LHP Hisanori Takahashi
Position players
1B Anthony Rizzo
2B Darwin Barney
2B/SS/3B Brent Lillibridge
SS Starlin Castro
3B Luis Valbuena
OF David DeJesus
OF Nate Schierholtz
OF Alfonso Soriano
OF Scott Hairston
OF Dave Sappelt
C Welington Castillo
C Dioner Navarro
C/IF Steve Clevenger
– Carrie Muskat
3/26 Reds 11, Cubs 1
Johnny Cueto topped Jeff Samardzija on the mound and at the plate in a showdown between two Opening Day starters on Tuesday. Todd Frazier hit a solo home run to back Cueto and and lift the Reds to an 11-1 victory over the Cubs. The game was the Cubs’ first night game at HoHoKam Stadium since March 28, 2005, and played in front of 9,388 fans. Samardzija, who will kick off the Cubs season Monday in Pittsburgh, gave up five hits over five innings, did not walk a batter, and struck out four.
“This is the last hurrah and it’s just basically getting his work in and working on what he feels he needs to work on going into Opening Day,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said before the game.
Cueto singled off Samardzija with two outs in the Reds’ third, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Emmanuel Burriss’ double. Samardzija and Cueto have squared off before.
“It was definitely a good atmosphere and I’ve pitched against Johnny since High A down in Sarasota and Daytona,” Samardzija said. “We know each other pretty well. He’s a heck of a pitcher and had a heck of a year last year.”
Hisanori Takahashi, bidding for the Cubs’ final bullpen spot, struck out the side in the sixth. But Frazier connected on the first pitch leading off the seventh for his fifth spring home run.
The Reds sent 13 batters to the plate in the ninth and scored nine runs, including six off Carlos Marmol, who failed to retire any of the six batters he faced.
* Up next: The Cubs will play their penultimate game in Arizona on Wednesday night when they travel to Surprise to face the Royals under the lights. Scott Feldman, who will open the Cubs’ series in Atlanta on April 5, will get the start. Among the players scheduled to make the trip are David DeJesus, Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo, and Darwin Barney. The game, which begins at 6:05 p.m. Arizona time, will be broadcast on WGN Radio.
– Carrie Muskat
3/26 Cubs lineup
The Cubs play host to the Reds Tuesday night in the penultimate game at HoHoKam Stadium. The last game will be Thursday, starting at 12:05 p.m. vs. the Mariners. Here’s tonight’s starting lineup:
DeJesus CF
Castro SS
Rizzo 1B
Sappelt LF
Schierholtz RF
Castillo C
Valbuena 3B
Barney 2B
Samardzija P
– Carrie Muskat
3/22 Samardzija commits to Cubs
Did Jeff Samardzija dump his girlfriend to become a big league pitcher or didn’t he? In an interview with writer Joe Posnanski, Theo Epstein says Samardzija met with Dale Sveum the day he was hired as Cubs manager, and talked about his complete commitment to baseball. According to Epstein, Samardzija said: “I just want you to know one thing about me. I will do whatever it takes to help the team. And I think the best way to help this team is by being a starting pitcher. I’m eliminating everything in my life that gets in the way. I’m dumping my girlfriend. I’m moving to Arizona. I just want the chance to show you that I’m a starting pitcher.”
On Friday, Samardzija said that he did meet with Sveum on the day he was hired in November 2011, and yes, he did dump his girlfriend.
“In previous years I didn’t feel like I had done everything I could,” Samardzija said Friday about baseball. “I thought I worked hard in the offseason and did a lot of things but especially in midseason I didn’t feel I was putting myself where I needed to be to be the best I could be. I worked hard that offsesaon and when I met, I told [Sveum], I had no distractions in my life, and this game can be a lot about just minimizing distractions from the outside. The older you get, the most you realize that.
“I wanted to level with him that I didn’t have any distractions and the only thing on my mind was making the rotation and pitching 30, 32 starts,” Samardzija said. “The best way I could describe it was by saying I didn’t have a girlfriend.”
So he dumped her?
“Hey, that’s fine — I dumped my girlfriend,” Samardzija said. “That sounds like a better story.”
It’s also true. He did break up with her, but it was about six, seven months before Samardzija met with Sveum.
“Like I said, I wanted to let [Sveum] know and let the staff know I was all in with this team and I wasn’t going to have any distractions on the outside and I was commited to being the guy they needed me to be for this team,” Samardzija said.
– Carrie Muskat
3/19 Looking ahead to Thursday …
After an off day Wednesday, the Cubs will play their final split squad games on Thursday. Half of the team will go to Tucson to face the Dodgers at Kino Stadium in a fundraiser for the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation. Green was one of six people killed in a shooting Jan. 8, 2011, in Tucson at an event to benefit Gabrielle Giffords. Green was 9 years old at the time. She is the granddaughter of former Cubs executive Dallas Green. In Peoria, Jeff Samardzija, the Cubs’ Opening Day starter, will start against the Mariners Thursday night. Here are the lineups:
Cubs vs. Dodgers, Tucson
Barney 2B
Castro SS
Rizzo 1B
Hairston LF
Sappelt CF
Castillo C
Lillibridge 3B
Bogusevic RF
Feldman P
Cubs vs. Mariners, Peoria
DeJesus CF
Valbuena 3B
Schierholtz RF
Soriano LF
Navarro C
Baez SS
Nelson 1B
Gonzalez 2B
Samardzija P
– Carrie Muskat
3/16 Cubs 5, Rangers 1 (ss)
Jeff Samardzija threw five shutout innings, Scott Hairston hit a solo home run and Darwin Barney, Dioner Navarro and Brian Bogusevic each hit RBI singles to lift the Cubs to a 5-1 victory Saturday over the Rangers in Las Vegas. Samardzija struck out three and walked one, scattering three hits. It was an interesting game for Steve Clevenger, who started at first, then switched to third base as the Cubs try to determine if he’ll be a fit as a left-handed bat on the bench. Clevenger handled both spots.
On Sunday, the two teams meet again at Cashman Field with Carlos Villanueva starting for Chicago.
– Carrie Muskat
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