Lester's performance

For most of last year when he pitched, and even in 2006, Jon Lester struggled with his command, his control and never seemed to get out of the fourth or fifth inning. He was the typical young starter coming up from Triple A, and the typical fifth starter. But what we witnessed Wednesday night, is more than a transformation of a young guy getting more experience and getting more confident every time out. He's turned into one of the best left-handed starters in baseball.

How many times did Lester wipe his glove against his face, look down on the rubber, reel back and fire a fastball right past a number of very talented Angels' hitters? Lester was nearly untouchable. He has been over the course of this season.

It's strange to think that last December and January so many of us Red Sox fans were talking about sending Lester, Coco Crisp and really anyone else the Twins wanted for Johan Santana. We couldn't have done that trade fast enough. I was on that bandwagon. At that time, we thought we would have Beckett and Santana, with a healthy Curt Schilling, a perennial 15-game winner in Tim Wakefield and then the next Don Drysdale with Clay Buchholz. Instead, General Manager Theo Epstein could never make the Santana trade happen. Lester stayed with the Red Sox, and Wednesday night he posted his 17th win of the season, while Santana was at home, recovering from his surgery from last week, and watching Lester dominate.

It's very interesting when you look back at some of the former left-handed pitchers who took the mound in a Red Sox uniform. You had guys like Bruce Hurst, Frank Viola and even the hefty David Wells throw those huge breaking balls. Hurst bailed town for greener pastures and was never the same, and Viola and Wells were certainly in their tail-ends of their careers. You had Matt Young, who could throw hard, but couldn't throw strikes or couldn't throw to first base. The Red Sox had Jamie Moyer but traded him for a hustling fourth outfielder, but Moyer was, and still is a finesse pitcher, who throws off-speed junk. With Lester it's different. He rears back and throws as hard as any left-handed starting pitcher I've seen for the Red Sox in quite some time. He also has a very good curveball, that kept the Angels batters off balance the entire night. And the best part about Lester, is he doesn't get flustered, like we see with Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs, or Daniel Cabrera of the Orioles. Lester is calm, cool and collected.

And he didn't even get flustered after the game when he got interviewed by TBS reporter Craig Slater, who was wearing that ridiculous suit and tie. Slater made no sense when he spoke about Lester's ordeal with cancer and combining that into a question about his performance which had nothing to do with one another. Instead Lester just answered his question(s) with a smile on his face, because after all, he led the Red Sox to a huge victory in Game 1 of the ALDS over the best team of the regular season in the Angels.

Jon Lester's performance in last year's World Series clincher, and Wednesday night, certainly are two games Red Sox fans can't forget anytime soon. He's becoming one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball. Guys like Cole Hamels, Francisco Liriano and Scott Kazmir seems to always grab the headlines. Well if Lester keeps up what he's done during the regular season, and from Wednesday night, rest assure Sox fans, he'll not only get his share of the headlines, but he could very well be on his way of becoming the best left-handed starter the Red Sox have ever had. Already he is 27-8 over his career, and would rank first all-time in winning percentage at .771 surpassing Pedro Martinez .760, but Lester doesn't have enough innings to qualify. If Lester keeps this up, sooner, rather than later, he'll be passing Lefty Grove (105) and Mel Parnell (123) for most wins from a left handed pitcher in Red Sox history