PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) -Boston Red Sox starter Jon Lester keeps getting good news from his doctors and even better reviews of his pitching.
“I saw what I expected to see,” Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson said Friday night after the rehabbing cancer survivor pitched five shutout innings in what’s expected to be his second-to-last minor league outing before he returns to the Boston rotation. “It wasn’t surprising to me. It was a typical Lester performance.”
One day after a three-month checkup confirmed that he’s cancer-free, Lester allowed three hits and no walks while getting a no-decision in Pawtucket’s 5-1 victory over Buffalo. He finished with his sixth strikeout of the game, on a 94 mph fastball to Bisons designated hitter Ryan Mulhern.
“I felt a little tired there at the end, but all in all I felt strong,” the 23-year-old left-hander said.
Lester made his major league debut last June 10 and went 7-2 with a 4.76 ERA before ending his season when he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph system. Chemotherapy ended in December, and doctors pronounced him cancer-free.
Lester made three appearances with Single-A Greenville, with a 2.08 ERA and 0-0 record. He was scheduled to make his first Triple-A rehab start for Pawtucket at Rochester on Wednesday, but the game was postponed by rain.
That left Lester back in Boston on Thursday, checking in with the specialists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
“He had a real good day yesterday, a very good day,” Boston manager Terry Francona said Thursday night before the Red Sox game against the New York Yankees. “He got a clean bill of health.”
Lester will check in with his doctors every three months for the first year. “Everything came out well. That’s the main thing,” he said.
Pitching in a hovering fog that thinned the crowd to just 1,509, Lester threw 84 pitches, 56 for strikes, and picked off a runner to end the fourth. He is scheduled to make one more start for Pawtucket before the Red Sox decide whether to promote him.
“I expected a little bit more of myself, but they have my best interests at heart,” he said. “They’re not going to rush me back, have me get hurt and then I’m set back again. But, as a competitor, I want to get out there and pitch.”
Johnson said he tried to get a feel for Lester’s pitching by talking to some of the Buffalo batters. He also asked umpire Jamie Roebuck what he saw.
“I said, ‘How’s his stuff look?”’ Johnson said. “He said, ‘Oh, it looks great.”’
Friday’s outing was headed for a rainout, with the tarp on the field at McCoy Stadium until after 6 p.m. The first pitch was pushed back for a half-hour, and drying sand was spread through right-field to soak up some of the puddles that had formed in the grass.
Very few fans were in the stands when Lester took the mound, but they gave him a nice ovation. He retired the first five batters he faced and eight of the first nine.
“It definitely helps me out, knowing that people care,” he said.
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