PHOENIX — eff Samardzija gave up three home runs, his outing coming to a close after back-to-back jacks by Jonathan Lucroy and Ryan Braun in the fifth, in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-4 Cactus League victory against the White Sox on Sunday.
Logan Schafer also went deep in the second inning, but the Sox right-hander downplayed the significance of getting hit around during spring training.
“They hit a home run in Maryvale? That’s OK,” said Samardzija, who pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowed eight hits and five runs. He walked none and struck out two. “”I feel great. I made adjustements from the last time out, we were in the zone, hitting the spot a little more. Worked in some offseason pitches.”
Samardzija surpassed 75 pitches for the first time.
“I felt like I could have kept going. I felt real good,” he said. “We’ve been extending it down in warm-ups and throwing a lot of pitches. It’s all about stretching out and making sure your endurance is up, so when you need to go 100 or 120, you can do it.”The Sox acquired Samardzija in a trade with the Oakland A’s during the offseason, giving them what should be a strong 1-2-3 punch in the starting rotation between Chris Sale and Jose Quintina. His spring ERA is 7.15.“Spring training doesn’t go on the back of your baseball card so it don’t mean nothing,” he said. “You go out there and make sure you feel good and make sure your pitches are doing what they are doing. You learn from it when it comes to mistakes you mistake and if it didn’t go well, why didn’t it go well and things like that. But mostly I’m worried about make sure my body feels good, my arm feels good and ready for that start of the season.”The Sox have Samardzija lined up to start the season opener April 6 in Kansas City with Sale out of action for at least into the middle of the month. Manager Robin Ventura said before that he wasn’t ready to announce the starter yet.“They haven’t told me anything,” Samardzija said.This wasn’t the Sox’ best defensive effort. Micah Johnson committed his first error of the spring (on a grounder moving to his left), and the infield (Alexei Ramirez at short, Conor Gillaspie in unusual territory at first) mis-timed a rundown that allowed a run to score with Samardzija pitching. Leury Garcia also made an error at third base.Ramirez (.394) continued his hot spring with two hits and his 12th and 13th RBI, and outfielder J.B. Shuck (.394) was 2-for-3 with an RBI and his fourth stolen base.On deck: At Padres (3:05, CSN) Monday. Jose Quintana starts against Tyson Ross.
