Bill Simmons has co-opted the term "You're not winning this game" to describe a performance from an athlete that just seems a Herculean level of defiance and denial. It has become as cartoonish as he has.
It happens.
There are few things more riveting to watch as a fan than a player taking over a game and seemingly dragging teammates as awestruck as we are watching him while denying the opponents a whiff. In the last three games of the Finals. Jarome Iginla has a shift. John Elway wrote a song called The Drive. Carli Lloyd is in the World Cup Final.
These are classics, but every fan has their own catalog of performances that come along with such an emphatic door-closing that they become something else entirely. The outcome of the game is decided by one player standing above the rest.
Jon Lester has three rings after announcing his retirement today. He has them in Boston and Chicago. The tale of how Lester overcame cancer as a rookies to start and win the World Series is similar to that of the man. It was only improved six years later, when over two World Series starts, Jon Lester struck out 15 against one walk and gave up a single run to the Cards, stripping them of any hope that they might overcome the Red Sox. The series was tied 2-2 and it felt poised for anything. By the time he was done in Game 5, he had opened a gap between the teams that could only be filled by one winner.
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It wasn't great. It wasn't bad, but it didn't pop off the screen the way Verlander or Kershaw did. He could locate the pitch on either side of the plate. The change-up was better than you realized, without being the Bugs Bunny version. He probably should have used more.
It was made up for with expert location and expertise, and a will that was unparalleled. It felt like when he was at his best, he would stare a hitter down until they stopped playing. He didn't need to put up monster strikeout games. There were broken bats, weak grounders, and harmless flies. It felt like he conjured those because he wanted to hit more than the hitter wanted to hit. There was a determination to do something about it. Even though he was hit with something or thrown something at him, he kept moving forward. He barely reacted.
When his career ended with the Red Sox, his reputation as a stone-cold killer was already in place, but he was elevated to deity status in Chicago with the Cubs. He will go down as the best free-agent signing in Chicago sports history, and only Marian Hossa will have an argument. It's pretty much the end of any debate when you are the major reason for the end of sadness, comedy, and pain.
Three games, three starts in the 2016 playoffs is what it comes down to. In the end, he finished second in the Cy Young voting, the closest he would ever get to the award, because he was brilliant through the entire year. Jake Arrieta, the reigning Cy Young champion, began to fade as his teammate, Jon Lester, canceled that out with some help from Kyle Hendricks. An average of 59 is better than a 2.44ERA, but it's 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611
Without the three starts in October, none of that would have mattered. The first game was against the Giants. The last Giants team to win the World Series wasn't that impressive, but they still had all that cache, and Johnny Cueto was on the mound. For years the Cubs have had to deal with the fact that our stomachs were moving with so much desperation before a pitch was thrown. The two of them were just as good that year.
Even with the Cubs winning 103 games, this city would have gone over the deep end if they had beaten them in Game 1 with Madison Bumgarner waiting in Game 3. The gremlins and ghouls would have come out. It would have translated to the team. Too many times to count, we had seen it before.
Staring down opponents, history, fear, and telling all of it, 'Get fucked, I'm on this.'
The man didn't care. The Giants had one runner to second on him. Even as Cueto was matching zeroes, the Wrigley crowd was reassured by Lester's steeled confidence and defiance. We will find a run, because Lester wouldn't let them score. Javy did in the eighth. On the right foot. Follow Jon.
In the NLCS, the next came in Game 5. You know the Dodgers team. The Cubs bats went missing in the second and third games against Rich Hill. Losing Game 5 and having to win both at home, including getting past Kershaw, didn't hold much appeal. The Cubs clobbered the Dodgers, the Dodgers had one run over seven, and the Dodgers had a terrible pen. Follow Jon.
The last time the Cubs had their ass out of a sling, it was by Lester. The world was ending after Game 5 of the World Series. The Cubs were facing defeat, having been drawn and quartered by both Cleveland and the Indians, but also by some hilljack Mike Tomlin. We didn't know if we were going to a wake before Game 5 because we might see the Cubs lose a World Series at home.
The Cubs won that night because of the strike out in the top of the first, which turned Wrigley back into the frenzied zoo it had been. Hendricks had it, even through his unnecessarily early relief appearance in Game 7. Follow Jon.
The three games that were played were all that we needed to get to where we are today. Staring down opponents, history, fear, and telling all of it, "Get fucked, I'm on this." He did not have to make anyone look foolish, he just kept moving forward. No one could stop him when it mattered the most. He gave more of the same thing.
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