Worth noting

• If Garza is out of the Cubs' rotation soon, Sveum said Chris Rusin and Brooks Raley would be two of the top candidates to assume Garza's place in the rotation. Rusin and Raley, both lefties, each have limited experience with the Cubs this year and have spent most of the year with Triple-A Iowa.

• Samardzija didn't exactly leg out his groundouts at the plate Friday night, but Sveum said he's fine with that and would rather avoid the risk of a valuable piece of the rotation getting injured out of the batter's box.

"You want them to be on base and you want them to hit and drive runs in. But that next inning, the history of the game is just not very good for pitchers who have been on the bases or have exerted themselves running the bases," Sveum said." Their heart rate just gets to another level."