If It Can Go Wrong Lately for Jon Lester, It Has Gone Wrong and Other Bullets

Sundays sure do fill up in the mornings – hence the delayed Bullets. The late game tonight helps, at least …

  • There isn’t much new that can be said about Jon Lester right now that hasn’t already been said long before he got blown up by the Nationals yesterday. Every indicator we could look at in the first half said his excellent results weren’t quite matching his underlying performance, and, although some of that could be credited to a veteran executing well to the game plan and using his defense, most of it was probably the kind of good fortunate that doesn’t last for too long. Now, not only is the expected regression hitting like a tornado, Lester also doesn’t seem to be executing his pitches as well as he was earlier this year, which is only compounding his brutal stretch since the start of July.
  • Brace yourself for the numbers in eight starts since July 1: 8.01 ERA, 7.14 FIP, 16.4% K rate, 10.6% BB rate, 33.3% groundball rate, 2.0% infield fly ball rate, 16.1% soft contact rate, 32.1% hard contact rate, 2.75 HR/9. And it’s not like it was just a couple blowups skewing the numbers; just one of those starts was competitive.
  • The good news is that Lester is not injured (based on his own account, as well as the radar gun). Something is just off with his command, and, at this stage of his career, that’s going to get him trucked. His take:
  • I have no doubt Lester and the Cubs will continue to work and study and game plan. We’re just along for the ride.
  • (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

  • Congrats to Anthony Rizzo on the milestone:
  • I saw a Kris Bryant clip and I was feeling silly with the pause button:
  • When mom brings in the pizza rolls. #Cubs #KrisBryant

    A post shared by Bleacher Nation (@bleachernation) on

  • Hands down, one of the best throws I’ve ever seen – this should be remembered among the Cespedes/Guillen/Guerrero group of throws:
  • https://twitter.com/flippingbats/status/1028474912409874432

  • The starter pitching right there for the A’s was Edwin Jackson, who is about to turn 35, and is sporting a 2.48 ERA for those currently-playoff-bound A’s. Baseball is wild, man.
  • Speaking of which, this is pretty wild:
  • Some Bears Bullets as camp is winding down:
  • Outdoor furniture and Kindle book deals are among the Deals of the Day at Amazon.
  • 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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