Lester Won’t Let Poor Spring Debut Get Him Down
Jon Lester had a poor start to 2010 spring training action – giving up 4 earned runs in his only inning of work. Lester gave up 3 hits and 2 walks and he put the Red Sox in a bad 4-0 to start the game. Lester had this to say about his effort: “We’re all competitive. We don’t want to go out there and get beat. I can sit back and say it was the first one and we’ve got a lot more to go. There’s some jitters and excitement there. I’m not really concerned about it.”
Manager Terry Francona thought Lester was not his typical self in the start: “He was struggling right from the get-go. We could see it in his body language. It was a fight… As long as you learn from it, it’s good. I thought his arm looked healthy. He just wasn’t attacking the zone.”
Not good news at all, but look for Lester to have a much-improved outing his next time out. He is just too good of a pitcher to let this linger too long during the spring. Lester is a nice bridge to the 4 and 5 starters in the Red Sox rotation, so it is important for him to be ready right at the start of the 2010 MLB schedule.
