SAN FRANCISCO — Eighty-nine times, Jeff Samardzija torqued his massive, 6-foot-5, 225-pound frame and fired toward home plate. He weathered through six innings, finding consistency at times, only to lose it moments later.
Through a murky outing, Samardzija could boil his complicated evening down to two pitches. An 0-1 sinker floated over the heart of the plate. A two-strike slider didn’t slide, it hung. And just two pitches cost him four runs, painting a crooked number on an outing Samardzija felt sound in.
“Ahead in the count,” Samardzija said, “I need to make pitcher’s pitches. If you’re getting beat 0-2, 1-2, then that’s your own fault.
“That means it’s not stuff, it’s not mechanics. It’s the mental approach.”
After the Giants’ (49-29) 8-3 loss to the A’s (33-43), the right-hander chastised his line of thinking multiple times. His mechanics felt fine. His velocity was on par. Samardzija had the pieces needed for a solid start, but fell apart before he ever had something to build on. That’s because five A’s came across to score in the second inning, padding rookie starter Daniel Mengden with a lead much bigger than he needed.
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Back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning tacked another run on Samardzija’s line, rounding out his third start this month that he’s allowed six runs. Marcus Semien’s three-run homer, coming on that hanging slider, highlighted the A’s second-inning ambush, and was the ninth long ball off Samardzija in his last five starts.
Jake Peavy faced reporters after a five-run start against the Cubs in May, a start he recorded only five outs in. He spoke about crumbling in one of “those innings,” a single frame that spoils an entire game. The same bug found Samardzija on Monday night, just like it did in some capacity during starts in Pittsburgh and St. Louis. He and manager Bruce Bochy had to trek down a similar postgame avenue as Peavy did in May, trying to talk through a four-batter span that sealed the game.
“He lived over part of the plate,” Bochy said, “and we paid for it. The next three innings he found his game, back to being who he is when he’s really good: Hitting his spots, mixing up his pitches.”
But it took too long for Samardzija to find his form, and now he’s staring at at an eyesore of an ERA this month: 6.83. In a wretched five-start span, he still has the touchstone of a complete game to lean on. That was only 10 days ago in Tampa Bay. But it’s a start sandwiched between some spotty work. One good start isn’t going to outweigh four mediocre ones, and conversely, one bad inning is going to outweigh five solid ones.
Outside the second inning, he got by relatively unscathed. Four times he retired the side in order. That was the sharp Samardzija, pairing his stuff and mechanics with a cohesive pitch selection. He humanized the A’s in those stretches, exposing them as the American League’s second-worst offense.
It’s just that he couldn’t do it for six innings, and got burnt for mentally drifting. An 0-1 sinker never should’ve straightened, and a two-strike slider never should’ve flattened.
“These things happen,” Samardzija said. “…You learn from them and you get better.”
