Chicago Cubs: When do you start worrying about Jon Lester’s struggles?

Chicago Cubs: Count on the big left-hander to get it right

If there is one guy in all of baseball I have faith in, it’s Jon Lester.

He’s a throwback to yesteryear – a no-BS, hard-nosed ballplayer who accepts praise when he earns it and takes the blame square in the chest when he doesn’t. If he’s not pitching well, there’s no one who will tell you so quicker than Lester.

Two years ago in July, he put up very similar numbers – a 7.36 ERA in five starts in which he totaled a disappointing 22 innings. His strikeout-to-walk ratio plummeted and it looked like the veteran was running out of gas after a dominant first half.

Sound familiar?

Well, from there, he went on to put up a 1.71 ERA in August and 1.48 in the season’s final month, leading the Cubs to their first division crown in nearly a decade. He finished runner-up in National League Cy Young voting and led the team to a World Series title.

Now, I’m not saying we should expect the same end result given how difficult it is to win a championship. But this is a guy who knows when things aren’t going well and makes no excuses about getting it turned around.

Really, I can’t say it any better than Jon did after his last outing.

"”Just got to be better,” Lester said."