
Play Like A Champion Today
How 5 Small Words made Jon Lester Perfect for nearly 7 innings
Pitchers duals are regarded by casual baseball fans as boring. “Its akin to watching 2 guys play catch for an hour,” is the rancor often heard wafting from disappointed fans who could care less about the skill of pitching or defense. Something is missing from the perspective of these individuals who are not familiar with the ins and outs of the game. The pitch progression called by the catcher, the pitch placement by the pitcher, and the outstanding defensive plays all keep runners off the base paths. These are the things that drive real baseball fans into raucous applause, heightening the tension with every pitch. We don’t say the words “perfect” or “No Hitter,” too afraid to break the unspoken rule and anger the baseball gods. Every pitch brings tension, and until the first ball finds grass, we lean more and more onto the edge of our seats with anticipation for each delivery towards the plate.
There have been 23 perfect games pitched in the history of the majors, and for the first 17 Cardinal batters of that Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester was untouchable.
Jon Lester walked out to the mound on at the top of the first inning, with white letters neatly drawn on the crown of his ball cap. Until the 3rd or 4th inning, it remained illegible, until the Cubs announcers had a camera man zoom in on it, and discovered what had been written on the brow of the pitcher in the blue pinstripes.
“PLACT” could be seen in white capital letters just above the bill on the right side of Jon Lesters hat. Those letters, as the announcers mused, stood for “Play like a champion today,” the often referred sign hanging outside the University of Notre Dame’s football locker room. It would be revealed to Cubs Nation later that Jon Lesters Uncle, a Notre Dame alumni and football booster, passed away on Friday. Jon Lester, who doesn’t cheer for the South Bend university, nor is he an alumni, carried the rallying call of the Irish faithful to challenge the feared Cardinal hitters as a tribute to his family, and his late uncle. Make no mistake, this hot Saturday afternoon in Wrigleyville would belong to the man who played with purpose — the man who would fulfill the battle cry etched into his brow.
Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester kept zeros on the scoreboard for a solid 7 innings, but both pitchers accomplished this feat in very different ways — Wainwright with the ground out, and Jon Lester with the strikeout. Jon Lester exited the game after the 8th inning with 10 strikeouts, giving up 3 hits — 2 of them home runs. Wainwright left the game in the 8th inning as well, yet after the Cardinals hitters put a crooked number on the board in the top of the 8th inning, the Cubs struck back in the bottom half.
Jon Jay got on base with 1 out before Ian Happ struck out [no surprise there] to put Zobrist to the plate with 2 outs in the 8th. Wainwright would stay in to pitch to Zobrist, which everyone agreed after the fact was a very bad decision. On the 107th pitch of the afternoon from Adam Wainwright, Ben Zobrist turned on the 90 mph 4-seam fastball and punched it to the wall in center field. Cardinals fans would lament, after the game, of Dexter Fowler’s seemingly below average ability to throw out batters at the plate. Fowler scooped up the ball, threw it to home plate, and couldn’t get it there in time as [former Cardinal] Jon Jay slid across home plate for the first Cubs run of the day.
It wasn’t the end, but it was the beginning of the end for the Redbirds.
Matt Bowman came in to relieve Wainwright for the next batter, reigning NL MVP Kris Bryant. Bowman would throw only 3 pitches. On his final pitch, Bowman leveraged a 92 mph 2-seam fastball over the outside corner of the plate. Bryant leveled it into center field, and the third base coach circled his arm so fast I thought it would lift him off the ground. Zobrist scored and the game was tied.
Brett Cecil was brought in to relieve Bowman, he took his warm up pitches, then looked over his glove towards home plate where Anthony Rizzo was waiting for him. After battling into a full count, the pitcher tried to bring his knuckle curve into the top of the zone one too many times. Anthony Rizzo connected with the 83 mph delivery and drove it back toward Dexter Fowler, who again came up throwing to the plate. Kris Bryant had seen how this ends before, and he knew the only way to the plate was to test his former teammate, and All-Star caliber catcher, to be first to the dish.
Dexter Fowler [again] scooped and threw homeward, and again the ball bounced into the glove of Yadier Molina a full half second before Kris Bryant would touch home plate. Then the ball swept out of the grasp of the gold glove catcher and skipped away from the plate as Bryant’s foot touched skirted across the dish. The Cubs had scored, the good guys had taken the lead, and somewhere above there was an Irishman with a tear in his eye.
Wainwright had depended on his defense, keeping the cubs hit-less between the 2nd and 8th innings before they were able to break the seal. The Cubs were fooled into hitting mostly ground balls as there were only 3 Cubs strikeouts on the day. Lester, however, owned the Cardinals with 10 k’s over 8 innings, and only 3 bad pitches for the afternoon. The Cubs took the game by force, and did it in spite of keeping the ball in the park.
In a pitchers dual, runs are at a premium. You fight for every 90 feet on the base paths. You take risks and push yourself on defense to support your pitcher who is living and dying on every pitch. This was old school sandlot rivalry baseball, and it was a breath of fresh air. If the Cubs can go toe to toe with the best hurlers in the league by staying one step ahead, and responding with aggressive play that yields runs, then there is no limit to what the Cubs can do this season (or postseason for that matter).
The boys in blue pinstripes need only remember who they are, and to Play like a Champion, each and every day!
[Game 96/162]

Big Ben Martin has been a Cubs fan since he was 3 years old, watching Cubs games on WGN in Kansas City after cartoons were over. Since moving to Texas, his Cubs love has grown to heights that make Texans blush. Self appointed Cubs historian and amateur baseball coach. When not playing the role of loving husband or father of three, he might be found screaming at the TV screen as though the umps can hear him, or as his alter ego Big Cynical Ben @bigbenkc on Twitter.

