Lowell Cohn: Jeff Samardzija the wrong choice for Giants in Game 2 of NLDS

CHICAGO - It wasn't until the second inning that the Cubs really kicked Jeff Samardzija's butt.

They had been messing around with him before that, just getting limbered up. Dexter Fowler led off the bottom of the first whacking a double off the ivy in right-center field and scored on a single by Ben Zobrist. And that was the extent of it. A single run to get things going. The Giants were still in the game.

But the bottom of the second was the real humdinger, when Samardzija showed what he's made of. Naturally, he gave up a second leadoff double, this one to Jason Heyward. One Cubs writer growled, “When that guy gets a hit off you, you know you're in trouble.”

Assorted hits followed, all with loud thwacking hard-contact sounds. And before you could say “Jeff Samardzija, take a shower,” the Cubs had scored three times in the second inning and the game was over. Final score: 5-2.

Baseball reminder here: in the playoffs it's all about pitching. You pitch well, you can win - despite what happened to Johnny Cueto Friday night. You don't pitch well, you swim with the fishes. That goes double for Samardzija, who's known as the Shark but should be called the Guppy.

In two innings, he gave up four runs on six hits, and threw 47 pitches, a magic number for him at Wrigley Field. On Sept. 1 at Wrigley, he threw 47 pitches in the first inning alone so, in a sense, what he did Saturday night was an improvement.

Oh, there's this. He did not throw a curveball until his 34th pitch. That was his plan.

That's a plan?

“I like to hang onto it until the second time through the lineup,” he said of his phantom curveball. “So I started using it there in the second inning. It was good. We were staying away from it early. Trying to get some outs with the fastball and slider. They put the bat on the ball and found some green.”

Huh?

Manager Bruce Bochy gave Samardzija the hook after those two innings mostly because Bochy has all his marbles and wanted to win. “He made some mistakes,” Bochy said of Samardzija, a suitably vague statement allowing Samardzija to retain a remnant of dignity. “He just couldn't limit the damage.”

That's because he caused the damage.

Be honest here. Bochy never should have started the guy in the first place. The Cubs flat-out hit.

Samardzija tries to beat you with power pitching, but the Cubs laughed at his power, at his 98 mph fastballs, and drove them far.

He is a pitcher with no finesse and, at this point, does not have the temperament or skill to be a big-game starter. Bochy should have gone with Matt Moore. Or Ty Blach. Or the Man in the Moon. Bochy should have started anyone but Samardzija.

After the game, Samardzija came to an interview area. He seems like a nice man who lives in total denial. Call it Shark Denial.

He willingly evaluated his performance. Here is a condensed sampling of his answers.

“Fastball felt good,” he intoned. “I felt good. No complaints there. Just wasn't my night. There's some pitches you'd like to have back. I don't think the location was that bad. Just falling behind in the count and not being able to put guys away. I didn't think I was gripping it too hard or moving too fast. It's just the way it went. I like to get settled in there and get into those mid innings. Lots of pitches and feeling good. Just never got in the rhythm and found that groove.”

Did any actual thinking go into those answers, more thinking, say, than his pitching strategy? And, excuse me, but there was good reason he never made it to those mid innings.

Someone asked about the atmosphere at Wrigley. I swear, someone did. The atmosphere?

“Great atmosphere,” Samardzija gushed. “Didn't go the way I wanted it to, but it was an experience to remember.”

In his nightmares.

How does he feel for the rest of the series?

“I'm ready,” he insisted. “I haven't thrown enough pitches to cross my name off.”

Cross his name off, anyway.

Why?

Because he was horrible. Because he never gave the Giants a chance, the Giants who have scored two runs in two games against the Cubs. They need every pitching break they can get.

Now, the Giants are down 2-0 in this series. The Friday game they actually could have won. But that's blood under the bridge, as they say.

They are going home. They will keep fighting. Remember that. This is a team with a memory of championships. Madison Bumgarner pitches on Monday. That's a very big deal. Gives the Giants hope. Means they have a chance. They really do. We've seen this team up against it before. And we've seen them seize the opportunity.

But what happened on a cold Saturday night in Chicago was grim and makes you think a scary thought. The only two Giants position players who could start for the Cubs are Buster Posey and Hunter Pence. Not Brandon Crawford. Not anyone else.

And while you're thinking about that, think about this. When you strip away the details of Game 2, how many pitchers Bochy used - seven - and when you strip away the Giants' customary lack of hitting, and when you strip away the assorted footnotes and addenda and folderol, there was one story and one story only.

The first two innings, those 47 pitches, that was the entire story. That, as they say, was all she wrote.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.