Jeff Samardzija will find himself on a familiar mound but in an unaccustomed role on Thursday. A onetime baseball and football standout from northwest Indiana and a Chicago Cubs pitching mainstay from 2008 to 2014, Samardzija will try to shut down his former team as the San Francisco Giants arrive for the opener of a four-game weekend series. The 31-year-old Samardzija, in his first season with the Giants, faces his former team for only the second time in his career and first at Wrigley Field at 8:05 p.m. ET Thursday.