With a career batting average under .100 Chris Lindstrom Jersey , Jon Lester might seem to be a pitcher who doesn’t care what he does at the plate.
Not true.
”It’s important to have good at-bats. I feel like I have done that regardless of the outcome,” he said.
Lester hit a three-run homer that highlighted an eight-run burst in the second inning and wound up with his NL-leading 11th win as the Chicago Cubs held off the Minnesota Twins 11-10 on Sunday.
”I’ve had good at-bats and I haven’t been just a one-pitch out guy. So I have worked some counts and I’ve been able to at least make the pitcher work,” he said. ”That’s all I’m trying to do.”
”If I get hits, I get hits,” he said. ”The home run is awesome, it’s cool, especially at home. It’s always fun to play here with the crowd and to be able to hit the ball into the bleachers. But at the end of the day I know I’m a pitcher and I’m not a hitter.”
Ian Happ also homered for the Cubs, who have scored at least 10 runs in four straight games for the first time since 1930. Chicago swept the three-game series and has won four in a row overall.
Brian Dozier hit a two-run homer and Jake Cave also homered for the Twins.
Minnesota concluded a 1-5 Chicago road trip that began with two losses in three tries to the White Sox, and fell 10 games below .500 for the first time this season.
Lester hit his second career home run, prompting a curtain call from the cheering fans.
Lester went 10 seasons, mostly in Boston with sporadic at-bats, before getting his first major league hit. Now, in his fourth season with the Cubs, Lester has put more of an emphasis into hitting.
”I really didn’t care about hitting there” in Boston, he said. ”I’m worried about David (Ortiz) and (Dustin) Pedroia and all of the other guys driving in runs as opposed to me.”
”Coming over here, it can change the outcome of a game, so it becomes a little more important and you work on it all year. In spring training you’re doing it from part of the second week on,” he said.
Lester (11-2) allowed four runs, two of them earned, and nine hits in five-plus innings.
Mitch Garver hit a two-run homer off Dillon Maples as the Twins scored five times in the eighth. Maples, called up from Triple-A before the game when pitcher Brian Duensing went on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder http://www.falconscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-kaleb-mcgary-jersey , also allowed an RBI single to Logan Morrison and a two-run triple to Willians Astudillo.
”Their offense, we just had trouble with it. Lot of big innings, lot of crooked numbers. I think our guys stayed with it. We got some opportunities there and got some big hits to get back in the game. When you get as close as we did late, it makes you think about some of the runs we gave up along the way, so that’s frustrating,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
Javier Baez, who doubled twice, Happ and Willson Contreras each had three hits for the Cubs.
Cubs closer Brandon Morrow got one out in the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances.
”They got out on us pretty early, but I love the fight of the guys in the dugout. I kind of had glimpses of last year’s team and our fight,” Dozier said.
In the third consecutive sweltering day at Wrigley Field with a gametime temperature at 93 degrees and a heat index at 101, the Cubs jumped all over Lance Lynn (5-7) in the second inning.
Baez doubled home two runs and Anthony Rizzo had an RBI double. Kyle Schwarber met reliever Matt Magill with the Cubs’ third straight double.
Cubs shortstop Addison Russell added an RBI single in the fourth inning and made a highlight grab in the sixth inning before leaving the game with an apparent injury resulting in the catch.
Russell bumped into Baez while making the running catch on Eduardo Escobar’s ball down the left-field line in foul territory. He walked off the field and into the dugout after talking to a team trainer and manager Joe Maddon. Maddon said Russell injured his left middle finger and he doesn’t believe it to be serious.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: LF Eddie Rosario, one of three Twins to leave Saturday’s game due to heat was in the lineup on Sunday. Teammates Bobby Wilson and Max Kepler were available, as was infielder Ehire Adrianza, who received intravenous fluids after finishing the game.
”We just encouraged everyone last night to rest and hydrate the best they could again this morning to get themselves in positions to get through the game,” Molitor said. ”You just try to be aware of it. There’s not much you can do: You’ve got to play people and you’ve got to get through the game.” … SS Jorge Polanco’s 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension ends Monday and Molitor said he expects him to rejoin the club in Milwaukee after a stint with Triple-A Rochester.
Cubs: OF Albert Almora didn’t start, but he came in the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement after leaving Saturday’s game due to dehydration. Almora suffered cramps in his legs and was removed in the fifth inning. Almora had a nice sliding catch in center to rob Kepler in the ninth.
UP NEXT
Twins: Visit Milwaukee on Monday as they continue their interleague schedule. Kyle Gibson (2-6) is the scheduled starter. He had another rough outing against the White Sox in his last start on June 27. He allowed five runs on a season-high 11 hits.
Cubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (5-8) will try to bounce back from his shortest outing of season on Tuesday against the Tigers. Hendricks allowed six runs It’s Super Bowl ad time again. Advertisers of all stripes are vying for the attention of the 111 million viewers expected to tune in. The goal is to be the most-talked about ad over the water cooler – or Slack chatroom – come Monday morning.
From Steven Tyler de-aging for Kia to Amazon’s imagining of different voices for Alexa, here are 10 ads that are likely to be talked about. And if you’re not interested in tuning it to watch the big game on Sunday, you can stream all of these ads ahead of time.
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Amazon
The internet giant’s founder, Jeff Bezos, stars in this 90-second comedic ad showing different celebrities including chef Gordon Ramsay, actress Rebel Wilson Kendall Sheffield Jersey , singer Cardi B and actor Anthony Hopkins subbing in for the voice of Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa.
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Budweiser
Anheuser-Busch dispenses with its usual Clydesdales and puppies and instead goes with a 60-second ad that depicts, to the tune of ”Stand By Me,” the company’s program to provide water to areas in need.
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Bud Light
The beer brand’s recent ads have centered on a Game of Thrones-like universe that uses the meaningless-but-catchy phrase ”Dilly Dilly.” Now, in a 60-second ad running in the second quarter, the brand introduces ”Bud Knight,” a heroic character who is ambivalent about helping out in a battle.
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Coca-Cola
The soda maker strives to include everyone in its 60-second ad: people of different ethnicities, someone in a wheelchair and a person who uses the they/them pronoun are all shot at various locations in Mexico clutching or drinking different varieties of Coke.
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Doritos & Mountain Dew
The two Pepsico brands have linked spots that show a lip-sync battle between Peter Dinklage, who lip syncs a Busta Rhymes song as a representative for Doritos Blaze, and Morgan Freeman, who lip syncs a song by Missy Elliott for Mountain Dew Ice.
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Febreze
Procter & Gamble’s air freshener tackles toilet humor with a 30-second ad airing in the second quarter. It purports to be a documentary about Dave, whose ”bleep don’t stink.” The kicker: Since your Super Bowl party guests are a bunch of not-Daves, you might want to take other precautions against bathroom odor.
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Kia
The automaker has enlisted Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler (who last popped up in a Skittles Super Bowl ad two years ago) to promote its Stinger sports car. In the ad, he drives backward so fast that he gets younger thanks to computer-generated magic. In a nod to advertising tropes, the ad also contains a subliminal message if you watch it backward; Kia helpfully provides this version online.
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Michelob Ultra
The Anheuser-Busch light beer brand has 30-second ads in the second and fourth quarters starring Chris Pratt . In one he runs and does yoga while singing along to ”I Like Beer,” a remake of a country song from the 1970s.
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Pepsi
The soda maker calls back to its past Super Bowl advertising efforts with Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Celtics basketball player Kyrie Irving and Cindy Crawford in a 30-second ad airing right before the Justin Timberlake halftime show.
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WeatherTech
The maker of car floor mats shows footage of its new factory being built in a 30-second ad in the first half of the game. On-screen text reads: ”At WeatherTech, we built our new factory right here in America. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?” It’s the fifth consecutive year WeatherTech has advertised during the Super Bowl that all of its operations are in the United States.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the car in the Kia ad. It’s Stinger, not Stringer.