SUBWAY® is celebrating ‘The Boys in the Hall’ this season, and Boston’s lefty ace is on its radar.
Jon Lester, who has been mowing down opponents since 2006, has won 97 games in his first 214 career starts. Nearly a Cy Young Award winner in 2010, Lester went 19-9 with a 3.25 ERA. The 29-year-old from Washington has won at least 15 games in four seasons and is just three wins away from hitting the 15-win plateau this season.
But American League sluggers weren’t Lester’s only adversaries, as doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed in August of 2006 that Lester had a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Lester underwent offseason chemotherapy treatments and attended spring training in 2007. After starting the season in Single-A Greenville, Lester made his season debut on July 23 against the Cleveland Indians, where he pitched six innings and allowed two runs on five hits en route to a win. Later that season, Lester would take the win in Game 4 of the World Series as the Sox swept the Rockies for their second World Series title in four years.
On May 19, 2008, Lester threw his first career major league no-hitter in a 7–0 win against the Kansas City Royals. The hurler threw 130 pitches in the game, allowing two walks and striking out nine batters. It was the first no-hitter thrown by a Sox lefty since 1956.
From 2008-2010, Lester went 50-23 with a 3.29 ERA in 97 starts. After winning 15 games in 2011, Lester hit a rough patch in 2012 and went just 9-14 — his worst season of his career.