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Jon Lester

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Jon Lester
File:Jon Lester.jpg
Boston Red Sox – No. 31
Starting Pitcher
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
debut
June 10, 2006, for the Boston Red Sox
Career statistics
(through October 2, 2007)
Win-Loss11-2
ERA4.68
Strikeouts110
Stats at Baseball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Teams
Not to be confused with John Lester or Jon Leicester.

Jonathan Tyler "Jon" Lester (born January 7, 1984, in Tacoma, Washington) is a left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the Boston Red Sox[1].

Career

High school

Lester attended Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma, Washington where he was a three-time MVP and three-time All-Area selection. In addition he was named Gatorade State Player of the Year for Washington in 2000.

Professional

The Red Sox drafted Lester in the second round (No. 57 overall) of the 2002 First Year Players Draft and gave him the highest signing bonus of any second-rounder that year, $1 million.

Lester quickly moved through the Red Sox organization, posting an 11-6 record, a league-leading 2.61 ERA and a league-best 163 strikeouts for the AA Portland Sea Dogs in 2005. He was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Year and Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year and was selected as the left-handed pitcher on the Eastern League's year-end All-Star team and on the year-end Topps AA All-Star squad [1].

Lester has been one of the Red Sox top rated prospects since he signed with the team and highly sought by other major league teams. Before the 2004 season the Texas Rangers insisted he be a part of a proposed deal for Alex Rodriguez. The Sox also refused to make him a part of a deal for Josh Beckett before the 2006 season despite insistence from the Florida Marlins [2].

With a rash of injuries and general ineffectiveness of several Red Sox starters, the team called up the prized lefty on June 10, 2006 to make his major league debut against the Texas Rangers. On July 27, Lester became an official MLB rookie.

In the 2007 World Series, Lester won the series-clinching Game Four for the Red Sox, pitching 5⅔ shutout innings, giving up just 3 hits and 3 walks while collecting 3 strikeouts. Lester became just the 3rd pitcher in World Series history to win the series clinching game in his first post-season start.

Pitching Style

Lester, a left-hander, pitches from a low three-quarters arm angle with a deceptive delivery. He features an 88-94 mph four-seam fastball, a cut fastball, a slider, a plus-changeup, and a good curveball (72-78 mph). Lester can pitch himself into and out of jams due to his sometimes sporadic control, but has historically avoided bases-loaded damage. As of July 24, 2007, he loads the bases approximately once in every four innings, but has a high volume of strikeouts when pitching from the stretch, allowing him to escape dangerous situations.

Personal Life

Battle with lymphoma

On August 27th, 2006 Lester was scratched from his scheduled start against the Oakland Athletics due to a sore back. The following day he was placed on the 15 day disabled list (retroactive to August 24th, 2006), and was sent back to Boston for testing. At the time, Lester's back problems were thought to be the result of a car crash he was involved in on August 18th, 2006. On August 31st it was reported that Lester had been diagnosed with enlarged lymph nodes and was being tested for a variety of ailments, including forms of cancer [3]. On September 1st, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed that Lester has a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma [2].

On December 5, 2006, ESPN.com reported that Lester's latest CT Scan showed no signs of the disease, which now appears to be in remission. Lester attended spring training in 2007, and on March 5, 2007, he made his first appearance in a game. He retired all 3 batters he faced, with a total of 8 pitches. He started the 2007 season for the class A Greenville Drive. Lester then started for AAA Pawtucket Red Sox in late April, 2007.[3] As of June 11, Lester was removed from the disabled list, and sent to Pawtucket for further rehab outings.[4] Lester made his first 2007 start for the Boston Red Sox on July 23 against the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, pitching 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and struck out 6, picking up the win.

References

  1. ^ Player Profile on mlb.com
  2. ^ ESPN (12-05-2006). "Report: Lester's latest CT scan clean". ESPN.com. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Associated Press (09-01-2006). "Sox: Lester has treatable form of lymphoma". Boston Herald. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Red Sox option LHP Jon Lester to Pawtucket". MLB.com. 06-11-2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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