By Jordan Long
The Chicago Cubs start the Major League Baseball season on March 28th on the road against the Texas Rangers. They will not have their home opener until April 8th. With the season 3 weeks away, Cubs’ Manager Joe Maddon has decided on the opening day pitcher, Jon Lester.
According to thesouthern.com Lester said, “Any time you get to start that first day, it’s pretty cool, especially for an organization like this. It just means your teammates and organization feel like you’re doing something right. It’s always an honor to get that nod.”
Lester has been the Cubs’ opening day starter since the 2017 season. He also appeared as the starter for the Boston Red Sox from 2011-2014. Lester deserves the opportunity since he is the ace of the staff.
Lester is coming off one of his better years with the Chicago Cubs. He won 18 games last season, the second most in his career. In 2016 Lester had 19 victories. His ERA was 3.32. Lester is hoping to follow up with another outstanding year in 2019.
In Spring Training, he hasn’t been that impressive so far. Lester started 3 games and has pitched 8.2 innings. He hasn’t looked like the dominant pitcher he was last year. Lester has given up 7 hits, 5 runs, and 3 home runs. Batters are working the count on him and he has walked 3 so far. Lester has been able to strike batters out with 10. His ERA in the spring is 5.19 and Lester knows those numbers aren’t going to cut it in the regular season.
Maddon recognizes Lester is the Cubs’ top pitcher. He hasn’t shown it in Spring Training. Then again it is only a sample of what he will do during the year. If Lester starts to struggle, the Cubs have other pitchers they can count on including Kyle Hendricks, Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana, and Yu Darvish.
Chicago hopes Lester will have a strong outing on opening day. His performance could go a long way to help the Cubs reach the postseason again. Hopefully Lester can be the pitcher Chicago saw in 2018. It will all start on March 28th. fff
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