If you placed a bet that Jon Lester would deliver the game-winning RBI to help the Chicago Cubs win Sunday’s game — well, we don’t believe you.
The Cubs starting pitcher, after all, is one of the worst hitters in Major League Baseball history. He owns a lifetime .051 batting average and didn’t record the first hit of his career — which began in 2006 — until last season.
But all that didn’t stop Cubs manager Joe Maddon from making one of the boldest moves you’ll ever see, bringing Lester in to hit with one out and Jason Heyward on third base in the 12th inning against the Seattle Mariners.
Turns out there was a method to Maddon’s madness: Lester can bunt. And bunt he did.
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Lester executed a perfect squeeze, dropping down a bunt that allowed baserunner Heyward to scamper home with the game-winning run and give the Cubs a walk-off 7-6 win.
The RBI was just the fifth of Lester’s 11-year career, but it came at the perfect time. Chicago already scored three runs in the ninth inning to improbably tie the score, and the former Boston Red Sox pitcher’s bunt helped the club earn its fourth win in five games.
Lester’s reaction to the wild chain of events was classic.
“I blacked out for a minute,” Lester said, via the Chicago Tribune. “There was no thinking at all. … I’m just happy I did what I was supposed to do and it worked out.”
Thumbnail photo via David Kohl/USA TODAY Sports Images
