How Many Hits? None?
Jon Lester threw a no-hitter. I must say, I really don’t believe it. This is a guy who usually struggles to find the plate, walks too many guys, and gets himself in jams. But not last night. Last night, he was virtually perfect.
Lester threw 130 total pitches - pretty high, especially for him - in 9 innings. He struck out 9 guys and threw 86 strikes. That’s 66% - a pretty high number as far as percentage. Considering how many swing and misses there were, that’s even more impressive (high K %s usually correlate with lots of foul balls). Compare that to his previous outings when he threw 62% in Baltimore, 61% in Minnesota and 64% against Tampa. Those extra few strikes were the difference in letting 2 guys on and getting 2 outs.
Of course, there was another key difference maker in this game, and he deserves some praise too. Jacoby Ellsbury covered more ground than Johnny Damon or Coco Crisp ever could (in my opinion at least) to make a terrific catch in the 4th inning that made the no-hitter possible.
Ellsbury (Or is it Ellsworth Mr. Morgan?) was my favorite for rookie of the year this year before the season started, and so far he’s living up to the hype. In addition to great defense, he also stole second and third at one point and when is the last time the Sox did that, or even had a guy who could come close (Go ahead, mention Darren Bragg)?
Yes, this is a new kind of Red Sox team. A team where young pitchers throw no-hitters and rookies of the year bail them out with spectacular plays behind them. This is Jason Varitek’s pitching staff, who should probably get 49% of the credit for this game going the way it did. There wasn’t a whole lot of shaking off going on (Imagine if Schilling hadn’t shaken off Tek in his almost- no hitter last year) becuase they had a game plan and stuck to it.
130 pitches is a lot, and not to take anything away from Lester, but let’s see how he comes out next game. That will be the real sign. After all, in the Schilling example, he threw 9 innings and then sucked for a month before going on the DL. Let’s hope Lester really is just this much stronger and didn’t sacrifice anything to get to this point.
But in the end, he’s proven just about everything he can on the baseball field. He beat cancer, beat the Yankees, won the clinching game of the world series, and now has a no-hitter to his credit.
200 more wins and we can start talking hall of fame!
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