We’re well into mid-April, and your San Francisco Giants (5-9) currently sit in last place of the NL West. Jeff Samardzija took his third loss of the season on Sunday against Colorado, allowing 4 earned runs and 8 hits in 7 innings pitched. On the season, Samardzija’s ERA now sits at 6.16.
NBC Sports Bay Area broadcaster and longtime Giants relief pitcher Javier Lopez joined The Audible on KNBR 1050 Monday morning, to try and diagnose what’s going on with the fourth man in San Francisco’s starting rotation.
“I think he’s just frustrated with command, I think he’d tell you that” Lopez said. “He’s out there. He’s got plus stuff. We all know that. We’ve seen it. I think it’s just a matter of the consistency. When he gets in trouble, he’s got the big arm, but the ball gets up. He’s a guy that relies on some movement. When he gets the ball up in the zone, it kind of flattens out a little bit. And that’s when he gets into some trouble.”
The Giants signed the right-hander to a five-year, $90 million in December of 2016. The 32-year-old went 12-11 last season with a 3.81 ERA and he ate up 203.1 innings. The Giants have lost all three of Samardzija’s starts so far in 2017, although he’s averaging 8 strikeouts per game. Despite Lopez’s comments about his command, Samardzija didn’t walk any batters Sunday against the Rockies.
“He had the split-finger going yesterday. He had his cutter going yesterday,” Lopez said. “He’s wracking up the punch-outs. He did what he had to do. I mean obviously, it didn’t start off well, but he ate up 7 innings. He’s an innings eater. He gave up 4 (runs) and left his team a chance to win the ball game. That’s what you want. The one thing is he’s one heck of a competitor. He just wants to do well every time. And obviously, the win loss record isn’t what he’d like it to be. But when you want a guy that’s out there wanting the ball, and wanting the pitch, that’s all you can ask for. Samardzija checks a lot of those boxes for me.”