Washington Nationals left-hander Jon Lester was activated from the COVID-19 list on Friday, clearing the way for him to make his season and team debut on Friday against the Miami Marlins. Lester had been out all season, so this marked his Nationals debut and his first start for any team since before signing his franchise-altering contract with the Cubs in December of 2014.
There was certainly a Cubs angle in this 2-1, 10-inning Nationals win, too. Let's talk the pitcher first.
Lester worked his game in familiar fashion, peppering the corners with his fourseam fastball and cutter, rarely getting much of the plate. His game these days isn't missing bats. He goes out there and attempts to induce contact, preferably weak, and let his defense help him. It worked out well on Friday. Though he allowed five hits in five innings with two walks and just one strikeout, he didn't allow a run. He kept the ball down, allowing him to record nine outs on groundballs.
Now, he also got some lineouts and was fortunate that some really hard hit balls were right at well-positioned defenders. With how Lester pitches these days, that's just how it's going to go sometimes. In 12 starts last year for the Cubs, he had a 5.16 ERA and the previous year he led the NL in hits allowed.
Still, Friday was a nice reminder that Lester still has enough to gut through some scoreless frames and keep his team in the game when the offense is struggling.
Due in part to Lester doing so, the Nationals went to extra innings in a 0-0 tie. The Marlins put a run across in the top half. Lester's former Cubs and current Nationals teammate Kyle Schwarber stepped to the plate with the tying run on base. And he pulled off the heroics with a walkoff home run:
That's Schwarber's second walkoff homer of the year. The previous one also came on a Friday in which the score was 0-0 through nine innings. Fun oddity there, huh?
The Nationals have now won two straight games to move their record to 10-12 after a 1-5 start.
