What a difference a year makes.

How incredible has the career of Jon Lester been already? Timeline Time!!!

~ June 10, 2006, Jon Lester makes his Major League debut against Texas

Lester goes 7-2 in his debut season before a fender bender on Storrow Drive in Boston reveals a pain in his back, then becomes diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. His career was put into jeopardy.

~ July 23, 2007, Lester battles back from non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma to start against the Cleveland Indians, in Cleveland. He went 6 innings, gave up 2 earned, walked 3 and struck out 6 earning the victory in front of his parents who made the trip from Washington state to be there for the night.

This game was such an event that I had to record it, it was that kind of game. Nobody could see the next 10 months happening for Jon Lester.

~2007 Regular season:

Jon Lester 4-0 4.57 ERA, 1.46 WHIP

Heading into the post-season Lester was left out of the rotation in favor for Tim Wakefield in the ALCS against Cleveland. He made two appearances out of the bullpen one dreadful in game two, one spectacular in game 4 in Cleveland, going three innings giving up nothing, while striking out 4.

~2007 World Series

Jon Lester 1-0 0.00 ERA 5.2 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 3 walks, 3 SO. Game 4 winner, World Series clinching victory.

Barely more than 3 months since he made his first outing of the season, he won the clinching game of the World Series for the Boston Red Sox. He not only won the game, but looked outstanding doing it, looking stronger than he had all season and throwing a devastating cut fastball that had me giddy.

~ May 19, 2008

Jon Lester W (3-2) 9.0, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 9 SO No-Hitter

In one of "Those" games, Lester throws the 18th No-Hitter in Red Sox history and the first by a left hander since Mel Parnell in 1956. His stuff got better as the game went on, in my constant obsession with the gun, his radar readings were 95mph in the 9th inning. This is something that I haven't seen since he first came up in 2006, when he was around 93-94 range. Last night he was more consistently around 94-95 and even hit 96mph in the 8th inning. He has put together a nice streak of games leading into this game, getting two wins in his last 4 starts, but in both no decisions the game was blown in the 9th and 8th innings respectively. Going forward in this season is looks as if Lester is where he thought he was going to be two years ago before he was diagnosed, and now he is throwing smoke and consistently getting hitters out. What a career it has been already for Lester, beat cancer, won the World Series clincher and has thrown a no-hitter.

By the way, he's 24 years old and has only been in the Major Leagues for parts of 3 seasons.

The future is very bright for Jon Lester and his career is already a part of Red Sox lore.

Sterling Pingree