Instead of talking about Jon Lester’s dominating performance in game one of the 2013 World Series, the chatter has surrounded a mysterious substance that Lester supposedly had in his glove.
St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Mike Matheny called it a “dead issue” and the MLB issued a statement saying they couldn’t gather anything from a video that was circling the internet.
On Thursday, Lester denied any wrongdoing.
“I know what I do day in and day out to prepare to pitch in big league games. I know that not once have I cheated,” Lester told Alex Speier of WEEI’s blog, Full Count. “The picture does look bad. But it’s rosin. That’s all I can really comment on with it. It’s rosin. And my next start, in Game 5, I’ll go out there and do the exact same thing and hopefully have the same outcome of the game.”
Lester was fantastic in game one. He gave up zero runs on five hits and one walk in 7.2 innings in an 8-1 victory. In the 2013 postseason, Lester is 3-1 with an ERA of 1.67 in four starts.