Samardzija deflects uncertainty ahead of start

BOSTON -- The White Sox schedule for Tuesday lists Jeff Samardzija as their starting pitcher, going against Boston's Wade Miley.

As far as the right-hander and White Sox manager Robin Ventura have been informed, Samardzija will be making that start at Fenway Park.

"I'm scheduled to pitch him tomorrow, and he gave me the, 'Yeah, he's going to pitch tomorrow,'" said Ventura of his talk with general manager Rick Hahn about Samardzija's status. "That's where I go. I don't talk with any other GMs. I don't do any of that stuff."

"Yeah, yeah, as far as I've been told," said Samardzija, who has relieved for the Cubs at Fenway but never started at the historic ballpark. "I'm going to get ready, first time pitching here in Boston, so I'm excited. I'm just looking forward to preparing for that, and hopefully I'll go out and have a good start."

Of course, the only way Samardzija won't make start No. 21 of the 2015 season for the White Sox is if he's traded beforehand. Nothing seems to be in the offing, although Hahn has been put in an interesting position thanks to a four-game sweep of the Indians at Progressive Field.

The White Sox beat up on a team that didn't play well for four straight days, and that four-game winning streak simply improved the White Sox to 5-5 after the All-Star break. They haven't yet reached .500 and remain somewhat on the fringe of the American League Wild Card picture. But there was something different about that quartet of victories from past hot streaks.

Regardless of how the Indians performed, the White Sox played their best four games of the season in terms of offensive production, airtight defense and pitching that gave up five runs. So Hahn has to decide if it's worth moving the free-agent-to-be in Samardzija, or does it make better sense to hang on to Samardzija and let the White Sox play out this run.

Samardzija understands the tug of war in the thought process for Hahn.

"It's just the parity of the game right now. Within each front office of every team, they have an idea of how they feel it's going," Samardzija said. "Sometimes the record doesn't totally show the situation of the team, so I'm sure they assess that amongst themselves and go from there.

"All we can do is show up and play every day. We love how we've been playing. Our little road trip here against an Indians team that was down a little bit on offense with some injuries, and obviously everyone knows the status of this Boston team, so we need to come in and handle our business, and when the Deadline comes down the road, you see where you're at.

"Rick's a professional," Samardzija said. "Rick's one of the best I've worked with, and I have full confidence in him respectfully keeping me informed or not informed, depending on what he knows and doesn't know. I'm just trying to stay in my lane and just do what I do with pitching and let everyone else handle that."