(Sports Network) - Collegiate football star-turned-major leaguer Jeff Samardzija makes his second big-league start of the season today when the Chicago Cubs finish off a three-game weekend series with the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium.
The Cubs took their second straight from the Marlins on Saturday, as Marlon Byrd knocked in two runs in a four-run fifth inning and Casey Coleman turned in a quality start in a 5-3 win.
Coleman (2-2) surrendered three runs on five hits and four walks in six-plus innings in the Cubs' season-high fifth straight win.
Anibal Sanchez (12-10) was charged with four runs on five hits and five walks over five frames for Florida, which has dropped five in a row. Logan Morrison went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI in defeat.
Samardzija, who played football at Notre Dame, had made 46 appearances - two starts - over the past two seasons before coming in from the bullpen four more times to begin 2010.
He made his initial start on Sept. 13 at St. Louis and was effective, allowing six hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings in Chicago's 5-1 win. The 25-year-old right-hander and Illinois native walked four batters and struck out one.
Samardzija has made six career relief appearances against Florida, recording a save and a blown save in 7 1/3 innings with a 4.91 earned run average.
For the Marlins, Florida-born lefty Andrew Miller makes his fourth start of the month.
The 25-year-old product of Gainesville, Florida was solid in a Sept. 3 defeat of the Atlanta Braves, but has been hit hard in two subsequent outings while allowing 20 hits and 14 runs in nine innings on the road and at home against Philadelphia.
He's allowed a .380 opposition batting average in 24 innings in 2010, after allowing a .273 clip in 2009.
Florida took two of three from the Cubs back in May.