Starting pitchers across baseball have had strong reactions to how the Tampa Bay Rays handled Blake Snell during the World Series. Jon Lester’s, however, is among the funniest.
Lester is one of a number of veteran starters who prides himself on pitching deep into games and saving the bullpen. The notion of being pulled in the sixth inning after just 73 pitches while in the midst of a shutout is completely absurd to him. So when asked by ESPN 1000 how he’d react in such a situation, Lester didn’t mince words.
“We’d have two pitchers on the mound,” Lester said, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN.
That sounds about right. It also essentially echoes the thoughts of a lot of other pitchers around the league. It’s not the way pitchers want to be treated, and they’re taking notice.
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