Lester Vintage in First Start Since Taking Line Drive Off Leg

It was easy and obviously warranted to be worried about Jon Lester's health coming off his close encounter with a Melky Cabrera line drive last weekend in New York. The fact remains, however, that Lester was rocked for eight hits in less than three innings of work before the line drive even came into play.

In other words, going into Thursday night's start against Cleveland, there was more than his health to monitor.

The Boston southpaw brought his power stuff against the Yankees, but his mechanics and command betrayed him. Lester generates a great deal of his velocity with torso rotation, but he also has to be careful to stay closed long enough to command his pitches.

In the Bronx, his front side was opening up early, causing him to lose some fastballs intended for the corners over the middle of the plate. It looked that perhaps Lester was too strong, with his fastball reaching 98 mph in the early going and sitting at 94-97.

Flash forward to Thursday night in Boston, and we saw a more controlled Lester, and more importantly for Bostonians, a healthy one. He had his fastball reaching 96 mph, along with the late darting life that makes him especially tough up in the zone -- life that was occasionally absent from his start in New York. With that late hop, Lester is able to use an elevated fastball as an out pitch, and change eye levels as well as any starter in the league.

It may have been close, but it was not a perfect night for Lester. He sat at 93-96 mph with the fastball throughout the night against Cleveland. Through some of the early innings, he made some of the same mistakes he made against the Yankees, letting his front side open a little too soon and allowing some pitches to leak back toward the middle. Some credit just needs to go to the Yankees here, as many of those "mistakes" are not exactly glaring ones.

He struggled with the feel of his curveball early. When he has it diving off the table against right-handed batters, that's when you'll see those vintage strikeout totals. He was forced to rely more on his cutter at 87-91 mph in the early going as he searched for the feel on his curve. We even saw a few changeups sprinkled in with at a steady 84-86 mph, a 10 mph differential from his fastball. This is simply a testament to Lester as a frontline-caliber starter.

His ability to make adjustments on the fly and use all his weapons make him what he is. A pitcher with as electrifying a two-pitch combo as he has in his fastball and curveball that is able to mix in two other pitches for strikes is awfully tough to beat.

Unfortunately for the Indians, Lester settled into his normal groove by the middle innings and began to command his curveball down in the zone. From that point on, Boston's lefty ace put on the cruise control against a weak Cleveland lineup, showed his stuff to be crisp, and proved that there was no hesitation to plant and push over that previously questionable front leg. Expect to see vintage Lester pounding the inner half and dropping the curveball with precision come playoff time.

Frankie Piliere spent the last three seasons working as a scout, most recently in the professional scouting department for the Texas Rangers in 2009. He now serves as the National Baseball Analyst here at FanHouse.