Jeff Samardzija is enjoying success as a starting pitcher partly because he's figuring out the inner workings of his craft. Sure, he has the mid-90s fastball and, at 6-foot-5, has the nice downward tilt on his pitches. Mostly he's worked on throwing strikes and making sure the hitters don't see a pattern to what he's delivering. "I'm really thinking through at-bats and remembering what they did previously. That's all part of pitching," Samardzija said Monday night after pitching seven innings to help the Chicago Cubs to a 5-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
