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Samardzija's arm, bat leads Cubs to series win

May 16, 2013 - 4:57 AM Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Jeff Samardzija belted a two-run homer and pitched eight strong innings to post his first victory since Opening Day, and the Chicago Cubs topped the Colorado Rockies, 6-3, to take the rubber match of a three-game series.

Samardzija (2-5) allowed five hits and two runs, walked a pair and had seven strikeouts. His other victory came April 1 at Pittsburgh. Between wins, the right-hander went 0-5 in seven starts.

"He knew what he was doing tonight," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said of Samardzija. "He was pitching, he just wasn't out there throwing. He broke a lot of bats again tonight and I think when he's pitching well, he breaks a lot of bats."

David DeJesus led off the bottom of the first inning with a homer to left- center field to help the Cubs post their fourth win in five games.

The Cubs secured their first series victory at Wrigley Field this season. They were 0-2-4 in six previous series of two or more games in their home ballpark. Before Wednesday, Chicago's previous series win at home came against the Rockies, August 24-26 of last season (2-1).

Jon Garland (3-4) surrendered seven hits and three runs over five frames for the Rockies, who failed to build on a 9-4 win Tuesday.

"I felt like he gave us a chance," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said of Garland. "He pitched well enough to keep us within striking distance and win that game."

Josh Rutledge had a pair of RBI singles and Reid Brignac smacked a pinch-hit homer in defeat.

A ground single by Rutledge into right field plated Todd Helton in the second inning, but the Cubs went ahead for good in the bottom half. Darwin Barney doubled to left with two outs, and Samardzija followed with a homer to center field.

Alfonso Soriano lined out to third baseman Nolan Arenado to kill a bases- loaded chance in the bottom of the fifth, and Brignac, pinch-hitting for Garland, homered to right-center leading off the sixth.

Soriano made a nice defensive play to prevent Colorado from putting a runner in scoring position in the seventh. Rutledge hit a ball off the ivy in left, but Soriano hit the cut-off man and Rutledge was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double to end the frame.

The Cubs then tacked on three runs in their half of the seventh. Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo had back-to-back RBI singles. Castro scored on a Soriano fielder's choice grounder later in the inning.

A Rutledge base hit to right scored Troy Tulowitzki with two outs in the ninth, but Kevin Gregg retired pinch-hitter Wilin Rosario on a line out to a sliding DeJesus in center to end the game.

Game Notes

It was the second career homer for Samardzija, whose other came in the 2009 season ... The Rockies set a season high with nine extra-base hits in Tuesday's game, but had just one in the series finale ... Rizzo, who had two hits, has not struck out in his last 31 at-bats, dating to the sixth inning, May 7 against the Cardinals.