PITTSBURGH — Just because Jeff Samardzija is finishing his season as a pitcher Saturday night doesn’t mean the former Notre Dame receiver is done as an active player, manager Dale Sveum said.
“There’s no question,” Sveum said, “there will be situations where you could use him to pinch run, so you don’t waste a player. Say maybe a LaHair pinch-hits and gets a hit and he’s not going in the game, why not use [Samardzija] to pinch run? It’s definitely going to come up in the 20-plus games we have left.”
Samardzija was making his final start Saturday. The Cubs decided earlier in the week to shut him down the rest of the way a precautionary measure against overworking him during his first full season as a big-league starter. He entered the day with 165 2/3 innings — already 24 more than his professional career high.
NOTES
–Sveum said center fielder Brett Jackson was “very day-to-day-ish” after badly bruising his right knee crashing into the wall making a catch Friday.
–For the first time, Sveum batted the pitcher in the eighth spot Saturday, using speedy, slap-hitting Tony Campana as a No. 9 hitter. It’s something the manager said he considered doing earlier in the year when Campana was playing more regularly and might do again, depending how long Campana has to fill in for Jackson.
