The Dodgers threw everything at Jon Lester, and he threw it right back
LOS ANGELES — Jon Lester’s agent, Seth Levinson, kept receiving texts from other clients during Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
“He’ll will his way to a win,” Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy wrote.
“That’s who I’m going to be, a warrior,” Royals left-hander Danny Duffy said.
Nine years after pitching the 2007 World Series clincher for the Red Sox at age 23, Lester made his 17th career postseason start Thursday night — and arguably his most turbulent.
The Dodgers, knowing that Lester is reluctant to throw to bases, tried to disrupt him in numerous ways, showing bunt, bunting, taking huge leads, stealing two bases. And in the end, Lester’s pitching line in the Cubs’ 8-4 victory was as brilliant as it often is in October:
Seven innings. Five hits. One run.
The Cubs, leading three games to two, are now one win away from their first World Series since 1945 with the NLCS returning to Wrigley Field for Game 6 on Saturday night.
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will start that game, and Lester said he took the mound knowing that his fellow left-hander was “looming in the background.” A loss Thursday would have moved the Cubs to the verge of elimination against the best pitcher on the planet. Not a good option.
Before the game, Cubs manager Joe Maddon had urged Lester to focus only on his pitching and not worry about the Dodgers’ diversionary tactics; Maddon believed that Lester being concerned about “other stuff” contributed to his relative lack of sharpness in Game 1.
But aside from a few shows of emotion — including a staredown of the Dodgers’ dugout after fielding a bunt and making a successful one-hop throw to first — Lester was a portrait of unwavering stoicism and strength.
“He just brought it all,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “These really are the moments he shines brightest. You see it all the time out of him. It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to be a part of.”
Lester, 32, has a career 2.50 ERA in the postseason, averaging seven innings per start. Yet, it was in October that his throwing woes first were exposed.
The Royals stole three bases off Lester (and seven in all) while rallying to defeat the A’s in the 2014 wild-card game. Ever since, opponents have attempted to exploit his weakness, to varying degrees.
Lester, in his last 62 starts dating to April 13, 2015, has thrown over to first base only three times. But in his two years with the Cubs since signing a $155 million free-agent contract, his ERA is 2.89 during the regular season and 2.31 during the postseason.
“It’s always going to be there. It’s something we’re going to have to always combat,” Lester acknowledged to me during his post-game interview on FS1. “I haven’t run from anything. We’ll just keep adjusting, trying to throw strikes.”
Which, really, was all Maddon wanted in Game 5.
Opponents stole a major-league high 44 bases off Lester last season. The number reduced to 28 this season, but NL Central opponents occasionally try to drive Lester to distraction, and Maddon and several Cubs players said the only difference Thursday was the magnitude of the game.
“There's always plotting going on,” Maddon said. “And like I said before, the most important thing is that Jon throws the ball well to home plate. That gets overlooked. I don't want him to get caught up in the minutiae of everything else. Do what you do best.
“What he does best is he throws pitches very well, up to 94 miles an hour where he wants to, and then he has a great cutter and a curveball. So why would I want him to get mentally infiltrated with trying to hold runners if he's not comfortable? We have other things in place to take care of that.”
Those things include communication between infielders, communication between Rizzo and catcher David Ross for back picks and alternate fielding plans for balls bunted at the pitcher.
Lester, too, plays a role, holding the ball to disrupt the timing of potential base stealers and delivering the ball quickly to home plate. One Cubs official refers to him as the “best slide-step pitcher in the game.”
The Dodgers, if anything, needed to run more in Game 5; a steal of third led to their only run off Lester, and they also had a steal of second against him. But manager Dave Roberts noted that Lester often was 1.15-1.2 seconds to the plate, and that some of his players — Corey Seager, Joc Pederson — were not prototypical base stealers.
“They have a game plan going in that they want to bunt, they want to show bunt, get big leads, do all that stuff,” Lester said. “That’s fine. I’d rather have Adrian Gonzalez and Joc Pederson and all these guys bunt than hit it out of the ballpark.
“As much as they think it gets me off my game, I’d rather have those guys try to keep the ball in the infield. Our infielders are really good.”
Case in point: The crazy athletic play that second baseman Javier Baez made on a bunt by Gonzalez in the seventh, when the Cubs led by only two runs. Baez charged the ball from the outfield grass, fielded it with his bare hand and made a powerful throw to first. Gonzalez originally was ruled safe, but the call was overturned on replay.
Lester took care of Pederson himself on an earlier bunt attempt in the second; Ross said Rizzo will tell the pitcher, “Throw it to me. Throw it short. And I’ll pick you up. I gotcha.”
“At the end of the day, we all have flaws,” Ross said. “His just happens to be one that has gotten a lot more attention. We find a way to deal with our flaws, try to work around ‘em. None of us are perfect players. We try to do the best we can to help one another out.”
They helped each other Thursday night. And if they reach the World Series, they will need to help each other again; the Indians, perhaps the best base-running team in baseball, surely will try to get inside Lester’s head, too.
I asked Lester afterward if he felt that he had proven a point to teams that try to rattle him, and he replied, “I don’t know. It is what it is.” But Roberts broadcast the Dodgers’ intentions in his pre-game news conference, and his team got nowhere.
Against Jon Lester in October, teams rarely do.
“We actually weren’t that impressed,” Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler said, only half-joking. “That guy does this stuff all the time.”
