Jon Lester had enough. Already down 8-0 in the second inning on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, the Cubs ace waved toward manager Joe Maddon in the dugout and seconds later walked off the mound with assistant athletic trainer Ed Halbur.
While the game turned into Home Run Derby, the Cubs announced Lester was being evaluated for left lat tightness, an issue that loomed larger than the offensive fireworks and bullpen meltdowns during a 13-10 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. It could suddenly put the defending World Series champs in a very precarious position.
Right around the time Lester would normally be in the interview room dissecting his performance, he was scheduled to be examined by Dr. Stephen Gryzlo in downtown Chicago. But something clearly looked wrong with Lester, who got only five outs, threw just 46 pitches and gave up seven hits and a walk to the 14 batters he faced.
?I don?t have anything specific yet,? Maddon said. ?The thing that I saw today was that the velocity was down on everything a little bit. They did have a lot of soft hits over the infielders? heads. The pitches were getting in, but they weren?t finishing.
?They were able to fight him off enough to get ?em over infielders? heads, so he was lacking that last thing that you normally have on your pitches that permits you to not have that happen, or get even weaker contact. Because he was making good pitches. They were just dumping ?em on him.
?Obviously, something wasn?t right, because the cutters were like 84-85 (mph). That?s not quite right, so it might have been bothering him from the beginning. He didn?t say anything, though.?
Lester already changed the course of franchise history by deciding to sign with a last-place team after the 2014 season, and the Cubs are counting on him to be a separator in a National League Central race where three teams began the day separated by less than three games.
Lester?s six-year, $155 million megadeal essentially already paid for itself during the first two seasons, the Cubs winning 200 games, five playoff rounds and their first World Series title since 1908.
Lester ? a three-time World Series champion who always seems to peak at the right time ? will also have the occasional clunker. After getting two outs and giving up 10 runs to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the final game before the All-Star break, Lester came back refreshed and went 3-1 with a 3.26 ERA in his next six starts, putting up 45 strikeouts against eight walks.
?His velocity was a little down,? catcher Alex Avila said. ?Maybe his side had something to do with it. But it seemed like in that inning the balls that they hit were just perfectly placed.?
Lester is also a model of durability, needing only five more starts this season to reach 31 for the 10th time in his career. At a time when the entire industry is searching for ways to keep pitchers healthy, the ultra-consistent lefty has exceeded the 200-inning mark in five straight seasons and in eight of the last nine.
The Cubs (63-57) stretched Mike Montgomery out to 61 pitches, watched the lefty swingman hold the rugged Cincinnati lineup scoreless for 4.1 innings and think he could be a long-term solution in their rotation. But this second-half surge started with pitching, and the rotation revolves around Lester?s blue-collar approach to his job.
In Lester?s mind, your arm might feel good on the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training, and it will only get worse from there, meaning a lot of it is about managing an unbelievably stressful grind.
?When a pitcher of his stature is potentially injured, of course, you?re a little bit concerned,? Maddon said. ?But I don?t want to jump to conclusions, either. Let?s just go through the proper procedures, have the doc see him and then try to figure it out from there.
?So for right now, I?m not going to jump to any kind of negative conclusions.?
While the game turned into Home Run Derby, the Cubs announced Lester was being evaluated for left lat tightness, an issue that loomed larger than the offensive fireworks and bullpen meltdowns during a 13-10 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. It could suddenly put the defending World Series champs in a very precarious position.
Right around the time Lester would normally be in the interview room dissecting his performance, he was scheduled to be examined by Dr. Stephen Gryzlo in downtown Chicago. But something clearly looked wrong with Lester, who got only five outs, threw just 46 pitches and gave up seven hits and a walk to the 14 batters he faced.
?I don?t have anything specific yet,? Maddon said. ?The thing that I saw today was that the velocity was down on everything a little bit. They did have a lot of soft hits over the infielders? heads. The pitches were getting in, but they weren?t finishing.
?They were able to fight him off enough to get ?em over infielders? heads, so he was lacking that last thing that you normally have on your pitches that permits you to not have that happen, or get even weaker contact. Because he was making good pitches. They were just dumping ?em on him.
?Obviously, something wasn?t right, because the cutters were like 84-85 (mph). That?s not quite right, so it might have been bothering him from the beginning. He didn?t say anything, though.?
Lester already changed the course of franchise history by deciding to sign with a last-place team after the 2014 season, and the Cubs are counting on him to be a separator in a National League Central race where three teams began the day separated by less than three games.
Lester?s six-year, $155 million megadeal essentially already paid for itself during the first two seasons, the Cubs winning 200 games, five playoff rounds and their first World Series title since 1908.
Lester ? a three-time World Series champion who always seems to peak at the right time ? will also have the occasional clunker. After getting two outs and giving up 10 runs to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the final game before the All-Star break, Lester came back refreshed and went 3-1 with a 3.26 ERA in his next six starts, putting up 45 strikeouts against eight walks.
?His velocity was a little down,? catcher Alex Avila said. ?Maybe his side had something to do with it. But it seemed like in that inning the balls that they hit were just perfectly placed.?
Lester is also a model of durability, needing only five more starts this season to reach 31 for the 10th time in his career. At a time when the entire industry is searching for ways to keep pitchers healthy, the ultra-consistent lefty has exceeded the 200-inning mark in five straight seasons and in eight of the last nine.
The Cubs (63-57) stretched Mike Montgomery out to 61 pitches, watched the lefty swingman hold the rugged Cincinnati lineup scoreless for 4.1 innings and think he could be a long-term solution in their rotation. But this second-half surge started with pitching, and the rotation revolves around Lester?s blue-collar approach to his job.
In Lester?s mind, your arm might feel good on the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training, and it will only get worse from there, meaning a lot of it is about managing an unbelievably stressful grind.
?When a pitcher of his stature is potentially injured, of course, you?re a little bit concerned,? Maddon said. ?But I don?t want to jump to conclusions, either. Let?s just go through the proper procedures, have the doc see him and then try to figure it out from there.
?So for right now, I?m not going to jump to any kind of negative conclusions.?
