(670 The Score) Holding a three-game lead in the NL Central and with a 99.5% chance to make the playoffs according to Baseball Reference, the Cubs have several priorities on their to-do list in their final 17 regular-season games.
One of them would be getting struggling left-hander Jon Lester right.
"We have a lot of confidence in Jon," pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Wednesday morning. "He's a guy who's going to go out and continue to compete. We know that. And again, getting him on a roll is as important as anything we have going on right now just because we know how good Jon Lester is in the postseason and what he can do in huge games."
Lester is 2-2 with a 5.80 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in eight starts this season. After three strong outings early on, Lester has been hit hard, allowing five or more runs in four of his last five starts.
On Sunday, Lester was tagged with the loss against the Cardinals after going 3 1/3 innings and allowing five runs, all earned, on six hits and two walks. Afterward, he was perhaps as subdued and down about his form and recent performance as he has been since joining the Cubs ahead of the 2015 season.
With that in mind, Hottovy has been hard at work with Lester.
"Jon, like anybody in this season especially, is battling some mechanic things and some things he wants to try to accomplish," Hottovy said. "We're kind of going back to square one with him. Let's rewind and get back to some of the basics of things we want to do physically. But again, I think a lot of times we get too caught up in how we're feeling all the time and how our body is moving. Sometimes you just got to go out and No. 1 thing, let's just focus on execution. We know one day I might not have quite the same movement on my cutter, I might not have quite the same fastball command, but we really got to lock down what we're trying to accomplish. And I think sometimes Jon will get into those games and he'll keep trying to do what he wants to do even though maybe we don't have it that day. We have to be able to adjust and go to plan B knowing that it may not be there from the get-go.
"One thing with Jon is the work he puts in and what he's focused on in between outings is right – and what we're trying to accomplish. We know in this game, we're going to have bad stretches. We knew at some point in this season, we were going to go through a stretch where things were going to be a little bit difficult. We're right at that six-week, seven-week mark from the beginning of the season that we usually see that end-of-May, early-June kind of lull, especially with pitching arms. You get fatigued. You see injuries spike and things like that. So not only are you frustrated with results but your body is not feeling the greatest. So we're battling through that as well."
