Jon Lester picked off a runner on first and then stared into Cardinals dugout
You can scratch this off your bucket list: here is a video of Jon Lester picking off a runner at first base.
Seriously, it happened on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field. The unlucky runner? Tommy Pham.
Business Insider had a nice breakdown of Lester’s troubles throwing to first base, which apparently began in 2012. It had been a puzzling problem for him.
The Royals abused Lester’s inability to throw to first base when they ran wild in the 2014 Wild Card Game when he was with the Oakland A’s. The Cardinals have pushed things even further, taking ridiculously huge leads against Lester during a game in April.
The Cardinals tried it again on Saturday and Lester finally made them pay. Check out that lead. And the soft toss. And the staredown.
Don’t sleep on @JLester34. pic.twitter.com/YL2gqH0Wkg
— MLB (@MLB) June 3, 2017
According to the Cubs web site, this was the first time Lester picked off a runner at first since Sept. 20, 2015. It was the 27th of his career.
Pete Grathoff: 816-234-4330, @pgrathoff