March 27--It took John Lackey six batters to finally find his groove Saturday as Jeff Samardzija was more dominant from the start as the Chicago Cubs lost to the San Francisco Giants 5-2 before a sellout crowd at Sloan Park.
More important to Lackey was that he retired 13 of 14 batters at one point and got stretched out to five-plus innings.
This marked Lackey's last start of the exhibition season, as he will pitch in a minor league Thursday before rejoining his teammates in Las Vegas for two games against the New York Mets.
Ryan Williams is tentatively scheduled to face the Mets on Thursday night, followed by Jason Hammel on Friday. Hammel will make his next start Sunday against Seattle.
Lackey wasn't exactly sure what his prescribed workload would be Thursday, but he anticipated he would at least pitch into the seventh inning.
Lackey allowed two runs in the first inning but feels optimistic that the Cubs' offense can provide ample run support as it did in the National League Division Series against the Cardinals.
"It was an attractive reason to come here and play with these guys, for sure," said Lackey, who beat the Cubs in the first game of the NLDS but lost the fourth and deciding game on short rest.
Lackey might have lost Saturday, but he didn't lose his sense of humor when objecting to teammate Jon Lester's contention that the Cubs' lineup resembles an American League lineup.
"I don't know about that," Lackey said. "(Lester) stinks at hitting."
Ironically, Lester snapped an 0-for-66 slump to start his career by hitting a single off Lackey on July 6.
"We'll go eight out of the nine," Lackey said of the depth of the Cubs' lineup. "I'll give him that."
