Wrapping Up Jon Lester’s Hit

A little over a month ago, I asked which player would get a major-league hit first: Jon Lester, or Kyle Schwarber. Lester had just set an all-time record for the longest hitless streak to begin a career. But, it’s not like the Cubs were about to remove Lester from their rotation. Schwarber, meanwhile, was a hell of a hitting prospect, but he was in the minors, so that was a hurdle. By nearly a 3-to-1 margin, the audience voted for Lester. By nearly a 3-to-1 margin, the audience was wrong. Schwarber was briefly promoted, and he registered a hit. Then he registered another seven. Lester continued making outs.

Until Monday! Monday, Lester recorded his first-ever knock, off John Lackey in the second inning of a game in which Lester, for a time, had more hits than his opponent. For Lester, it was career at-bat number 72, and career plate appearance number 79. The hitless-streak record still belongs to Lester, and there’s nothing about that to be done, but now he’s officially no longer an o’fer. And while Lester himself would’ve preferred a win to a single, just because he won’t dwell on it doesn’t mean we can’t. Here’s to dwelling.

Lester and Lackey, as you remember, used to be teammates, and they got on pretty well. Friends in the game tend to be competitive, and from the article linked above, there existed some friendly bets in advance of Monday’s contest. Lester came up in the bottom of the second, with two outs and two on. The man in front of him had just walked; the man in front of him had just walked, probably, in part because the next guy up was Jon Lester.

Let’s get straight to work. Pitch No. 1:

Pretty big cut at a fastball up and away. You can read into this from the competitive angle, if you want to — Lester might’ve been trying to show Lackey up, taking a powerful hack to try to knock his buddy out of the yard. Or maybe Lester just expected a first-pitch fastball, after a walk. Or maybe Lester is just bad at hitting and didn’t really have a plan. The important thing is that, one pitch in, Lester was behind in the count. Pitch No. 2:

Lester didn’t much feel like swinging at this fastball, but it was also a fastball right down the pipe. Maybe Lester prefers the pitch over the outer third, I don’t know, but umpires will never miss this. So the count was 0-and-2, and if you thought Lester was bad at 0-and-0…

Pitch No. 3:

It’s not that Lester has horrible contact skills. He can foul a pitch off. But his bat control isn’t good, and his bat speed isn’t good, and because he’s completely non-threatening he’s always behind in the count. So he ends up on the defensive. This pitch was a ball, but it was close enough that Lester had to take a hack to survive. Maybe he recognized that. Maybe he just swung because he didn’t know what else to do.

I should note: the Cubs broadcast briefly mentioned that it seemed like Lackey was reaching back for something extra. I think they were kind of joking, but, this at-bat lasted four pitches. Three of them came in at 95 miles per hour. Lackey threw just three other pitches at 95 all game. Again, you can go for the competitive angle, if it fits your narrative. Lackey wanted to strike his buddy out. Perhaps that meant that Lackey overthrew. Pitch No. 4:

Technically, it’s an infield single. But it gets recorded as a hit, and short of hitting the ball out of the yard, I’m not sure there could’ve been a more satisfying way to bust the streak. The ball was hit hard, and as others have put it, Jon Lester recorded his first-ever hit literally off of John Lackey. The count was heavily in Lackey’s favor, too. On the game, Lackey allowed an average batted-ball speed a hair under 87 miles per hour. Lester’s hit was clocked at 92. No argument. Clean hit. Same pitch as pitch No. 1. On pitch No. 4, Lester shortened up a little bit, and it paid off.

Over what’s of course a tiny sample, Lester has an average batted-ball speed this year of nearly 92. That’s north of Robinson Cano, Todd Frazier, Chris Davis, and Brandon Belt.

Typically, players try not to smile on the playing field, when the game’s still going on. They don’t want to show up the other team, and Lester in particular seems the type to always keep a straight face. Here, however, he couldn’t help displaying a little grin:

It was an unusual reaction, but to an unusual event. It was understood that this was funny, so the Cardinals could take no offense. It’s not that pitchers always get a free pass — you remember Jose Fernandez hitting a home run against the Braves. But everyone knew about Lester’s streak. It was presumably understood that Lester and Lackey are friends. And all the laughter wasn’t so much at Lackey as it was with Lester. It was about Lester’s embarrassing statistics. A hit was eventually going to happen, and just because it happened didn’t mean Lester didn’t still possess an all-time record for batting futility.

Look at David Ross and Miguel Montero. They giddily high-five, like fans. When a regular player gets a hit, teammates think about what it means for scoring a run. Lester getting a hit makes fans out of everybody. For that brief moment in time, the greater game didn’t matter. Everyone had seen something they’d never before seen.

The ultimate indignity: after Lester’s hit, the game had to pause.

Because Lester hit the ball off Lackey’s person, the trainer had to make sure Lackey was okay. Lackey was fine, but even if he wasn’t, he would’ve urged the trainer to return to the dugout out of what was left of his pride. Basically, Jon Lester batted against John Lackey, and afterward Lackey had to be checked up on by his mom. It’s never cool to be checked up on by mom. Lackey couldn’t just shake it off and throw a pitch. He had to stand there, with everyone dwelling on what just happened. He had to convince another person he wasn’t hurt. Tens of thousands of people were standing and clapping and smiling and laughing. Lackey stood helpless in the middle of it. The time between pitches wound up being 102 seconds. Count out 102 seconds, if you want. It takes forever. Now imagine you had just been humiliated.

In fairness, the situation was lopsided — the only decent thing Lackey could do was retire Lester, and even then there are no bragging rights because Lester sucks and everyone expects it. With any good contact, Lester wins. Lackey did at least get perhaps the last laugh:

“I’ll autograph it. And I’ll put ‘You lost,’ too.” — Lackey, when asked if his buddy Lester would ask him to autograph the ball from his first hit

So Jon Lester has a hit. One hit. He is the all-time leader in plate appearances for a guy with one hit. Presumably there will be more — his swing isn’t really that bad, and he’s going to be in the National League for several years. Lester still hasn’t scored a single run, so he’s climbing up that all-time leaderboard. But, his hit did come in an 0-and-2 count. Joey Gallo managed zero hits after falling behind 0-and-2. Ditto Jake Smolinski, and Allen Craig, and Drew Stubbs. Ryan Goins, after falling behind 0-and-2, is 1-for-40. Jonny Gomes is 1-for-33.

And as for the hitless? Randy Tate now holds the all-time record, with 47 career hitless plate appearances and 41 at-bats. Among recent players, there’s Armando Galarraga at 36 and 31. And the active Chad Bettis is at 35 and 30. He’s a ways off from Lester, but he could conceivably get there fast. There are always new pitchers, and new pitchers almost always suck at hitting. Maybe Lester will soon be surpassed.

But for now we have the best of both worlds: Lester has the record, and Lester has a hit. He might not have been able to dream up a better hit. It didn’t win the World Series, but it did come off of a friend, and for a minute and a half, the whole game stopped around him.