Jon Lester Successful Again and Other Bullets

jon lester cubs featureHappy Father’s Day to the many fathers among you. It’s pretty cool, huh?

  • Although Jon Lester appeared to be cruising in the 7th yesterday, Joe Maddon pulled the lefty with one out and nobody on, explaining that he wasn’t going to leave Lester out there over 100 pitches and his stuff looking like it was taking a step back (CSN). In the moment, Lester wasn’t happy about leaving the game – pitchers rarely are – but he understood and appreciated Maddon’s explanation.
  • After back-to-back ugly starts to begin the month of June, Lester’s put together back-to-back good ones, going 13.1 innings against the Reds and Twins, allowing just two earned runs on eight hits and three walks. He’s struck out 11 over that stretch.
  • Lengthy thoughts at CSN from Joe Maddon on his starting shortstop, Starlin Castro, who figures to be his starting shortstop for a while yet. Maddon says he has no intention of making any kind of defensive switch, despite Castro’s struggles this year at the position.
  • Good on Addison Russell yesterday for keeping his tag on Joe Mauer when he attempted to steal with nobody out in the 9th inning. What could have set the Twins up for a walk-off turned into an out when replay revealed that, although Mauer beat the throw, he came off the bag on his slide – the tag was still being applied, and thus he was out.
  • I have seen many shocking stats in my day, but this is right up there with the most shocking:
  • Not only is Coghlan a guy with a long injury history, he’s also supposed to be a platoon outfielder. How is it possible that that’s a guy with the longest games played streak in ALL OF BASEBALL? Some injuries around him and a very short bench (making him the top bench bat when he sits) are your primary answers, together with his own ability to be healthy and play well in the last year. Still, just crazy.
  • Max Scherzer no-hit the Pirates yesterday, which is neat, but he was one pitch away from a perfect game – a pitch that came inside and hit Jose Tabata with two outs in the 9th. What a strange way to lose a perfect game, right at the very end.
  • The Diamondbacks and Braves got together on an … interesting trade, in case you missed it.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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