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#TBT: Lester’s no-hitter a lasting memory
- Updated: May 19, 2016
Let’s start with this piece of full disclosure. As I got out of my car in a parking lot across the street from Fenway Park during the mid-afternoon of May 19, 2008, there was little reason to be excited about the fact that Jon Lester was starting that night’s game against the Kansas City Royals.
To that point in his career, Lester was the epitome of a prospect trying to find his way — albeit one who had courageously battled back from cancer less than two years earlier.
Though Lester would always keep the Red Sox in games those first couple of years with his plus stuff and competitive fire, there were quite a few nights where he would labor through five or so innings in the 100-pitch range. He was still learning how to command his fastball, and Lester admitted as much.
On the walk to the media gate, I recall remarking to my good friend Rob Bradford — then with the Boston Herald and now with WEEI.com — something along the lines of, “This should be exciting. Lester is pitching tonight.”
Nine innings and 130 pitches later, it was a statement you’d like to have back. But there probably weren’t many people who thought they were going to see a no-hitter by Boston’s 24-year-old southpaw as they walked into the gates of Fenway on May 19, 2008.
In 36 career starts entering that night, Lester had an impressive 13-4 record, but the more telling numbers at the time were a 4.48 ERA and a .273 opponents’ batting average. He had allowed 207 hits over his first 201 1/3 innings.
But this would be the night everything changed for Lester — and a night that showed why you shouldn’t lose patience with a young and talented pitcher.
There is just no telling when it is all going to click. For Lester, this was the night he threw the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history (nobody has thrown one since for Boston) and also the turning point in his career.
Over his past 256 starts beginning with that no-no, Lester is 118-77 with a 3.39 ERA, holding opponents to a .243 average. In 2013, …
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