Leave it to the Chicago Cubs’ seasoned veteran to put Tuesday night’s hard loss into perspective.
The Cubs’ season officially is over after they lost a 2-1 heartbreaker in 13 innings to the Colorado Rockies in the National League wild-card game at Wrigley Field. It’s a brutal early exit for Chicago, which finished the regular season with the second-most wins (95) in the NL but fell to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central tie-breaker before Colorado dashed its high postseason hopes.
So, what can the Cubs learn from their face-plant? Here’s what starting pitcher Jon Lester had to say after the game, via Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan:
(Warning: His comment contains some NSFW language.)
“Sometimes you need to get your dick knocked in the dirt to appreciate it. Maybe we needed that.”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Lester knows what he’s talking about, though: Tuesday marked the 26th postseason outing of his 13-year career (22nd start), which is more than the entire Rockies roster combined. The 34-year-old won two World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and 2013 as the ace of their staff and also has experienced plenty of early exits.
Lester did his part Tuesday, allowing just one run on four hits over six innings with nine strikeouts. And while his outing ultimately wasn’t enough, he expects the Cubs to be right back here next season.
“I think this will be good for our guys to get knocked down a little bit and to come into spring training a little hungrier than normal,” Lester added, via the Chicago Tribune. “We’ll be ready to go come February whatever the date is. It will be here in the blink of an eye.”
