It’s a small thing, and Jon Lester insists that it does not bother him. But he does notice.
When Josh Beckett takes the mound at Fenway Park, ‘K’ cards fan across the center field side of the Monster Seats to record the pitcher’s punchouts during any given start. The same treatment has been afforded in recent years to Daisuke Matsuzaka.
But no one seems to be taking notice that Lester has become more of a strikeout pitcher than either of those two teammates. With 187 strikeouts, Lester is on the cusp of not only the 200 K plateau that defines elite power pitchers, but also a piece of Red Sox history.
With four more strikeouts, Lester will surpass Bruce Hurst’s record (achieved in 1987) for the most strikeouts by a Sox left-handed pitcher in a single season. By the end of Tuesday's game against the Rays, Lester will likely obliterate Hurst’s southpaw Sox record of 190 punchouts.
Yet still, no ‘K’ cards.
“It’d be cool. That is cool,” Lester said of the fan ritual. “I don’t have a K in my name. Simple as that. (Matsuzaka and Beckett) do. It’s a cool thing. There’s obvious reasons why they do that. It’s a good deal for them, but it doesn’t bother me either way.”
The point is debatable, since past recipients of the strikeout star treatment included both Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling. What is inarguable is that Lester has emerged into one of the dominant power pitchers in the majors, a hurler armed to the teeth with dominant, swing-and-miss stuff and a growing knowledgebase about how to use it.
Lester ranks third in the A.L. with his 187 strikeouts, and second with 10.0 strikeouts per nine innings. He has performed as the single most overpowering left-handed starter in the league, a title that even CC Sabathia would seem unable to claim based on performance to date this year.
Sox manager Terry Francona, who admittedly hates comparing players of one era to those from another, couldn’t help himself. Earlier this year, after watching Lester mix 98 mph gas with a buzzsaw cutter and lethal off-speed curveball-changeup mix, Francona said that his pitcher reminded him of Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, who ranks 11th in wins and fourth in punchouts in baseball history.
The strikeouts are just one of several signs that Lester, who takes the mound on Tuesday in the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays, is a more polished and dominant pitcher than he was even a year ago.
The evidence of that notion may not lie in wins and losses or ERA (after going 16-6 with a 3.21 ERA in 2008, Lester is 10-7 with a 3.60 mark this year), though it is worth noting that Lester has been the best pitcher not only on the Sox but, by some measures, in the American League since May 31. After going 2-5 with a 6.07 ERA in his first 10 starts, he is 7-2 with a 2.24 ERA that is tops in the A.L. since that time.
Beyond wins and ERA, virtually all of the pitcher’s other numbers are better than they were in 2008. And the pitcher confirms that he feels like he is better now than when he established himself as one of the top pitchers in the game in 2008.
“I think I’m one year older, maybe a little bit more mature, maybe know myself as a pitcher a little bit more,” Lester said of his 2009 versus 2008 seasons. “I think that this year I’m more of a complete pitcher.”
Lester offers the judgment matter of factly, as if he is not surprised to enjoy this perch. Then again, no one else who has followed his professional career seems terribly surprised by the development, either.
EARLY SIGNS
Lester was the first draft pick of the current Red Sox ownership group, selected in the second round with the 57th overall pick in 2002. (The Sox had lost their first-round choice when they signed free-agent Johnny Damon.) The team signed him for a $1 million bonus – vastly outspending the recommended slot bonus – at a time when he typically pitched in the high-80s while occasionally cracking 90 mph.
Even then, however, the player development staff believed that Lester could develop into a strikeout pitcher. He struck out six batters per nine innings in his first professional season in 2003, then jumped that rate to more than one punchout per inning
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