Chicago Cubs: No sweep of Dodgers, but Jon Lester sharp in return

The Chicago Cubs dropped their series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday afternoon, but ace Jon Lester was brilliant in his first start since coming off the Injured List.

The Chicago Cubs’ Jon Lester scattered four hits and one run across five innings of work, striking out five and walking none in his first start since April 8 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, the Chicago Cubs would lose 2-1 as the Dodgers avoided a sweep.

The veteran left-hander kept Dodgers hitters off-balance all day, using more of his cutter and having a lot of success throwing the curveball as an out pitch, which is far from typical for Lester.

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Still, the Dodgers were able to scrape out a run when Alex Verdugo tripled to lead off the fifth inning, partially aided by Jason Heyward as he seemed to take a strange route to the ball in center field.

Verdugo scored after Javier Baez made an error on a hot shot by Chris Taylor, but Lester worked around a single by Dodgers catcher Rocky Gale to get out of the inning with minimal damage.

The Cubs, meanwhile, could not find the crucial base hit that they had benefitted from in each of the series’ first two games. Despite having four hits through four innings off of Dodgers starter Ross Stripling, the Cubs had nothing to show.

They squandered multiple first-and-third opportunities in the first and second innings, including a bad baserunning miscue by Willson Contreras that led to him being thrown out at the plate.

Things were fairly uneventful after the fifth. Los Angeles added an insurance run in the eighth, and the Dodger bullpen locked things down after Stripling was removed in the bottom of the fifth.

Albert Almora homered in the ninth to make it a 2-1 ball game and give Almora his first extra-base hit of the year, but it was too little late.

While the Cubs failed to complete the sweep, they have already climbed back above the .500 mark, and are tied for second in the National League Central. Even more auspiciously, Chicago has its ace back and healthy.

Lester had been far and away the best pitcher in the rotation–and probably on the entire staff–before he hit the Injured List. In his absence, Jose Quintana and Cole Hamels have turned in excellent outings, and Tyler Chatwood and Kyle Hendricks threw good games against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With Chicago’s bullpen steadying as well, the Cubs are getting Lester back at just the right time. The North Siders need to maintain this current momentum, having already caught the Milwaukee Brewers in the division.