Why Jon Lester could be the game-changer for the Cubs’ season

MIAMI — Nobody in the Cubs’ clubhouse is going to claim they have this figured out yet, especially a lineup loaded with young hitters.

Even with a 5-3 victory over the Marlins on Saturday, the Cubs haven’t won so much as back-to-back road games since April.

They fell behind early again — the 57th game of 74 in which they’ve trailed.

And the hitting star of the day, Javy Baez, pinned the lineup’s struggles on Kyle Schwarber and Company’s inability to adequately replace departed leadoff man Dexter Fowler.

But by the time Jon Lester got done retiring 18 of the final 20 batters he faced after a three-run homer in the first, it was clear something was different about this team than the “Embrace the Suck” ethic they lived for two months — but only wear on T-shirts lately.

“It’s a test for everybody,” Lester said of the 2½-month run of adversity the World Series champs have faced since returning to their regular-season jobs in April.

The slow start by the rotation. The failed leadoff experiment with Schwarber. Injuries plaguing big parts of the 2016 team: Kyle Hendricks, Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward. And a lineup of big-swinging kid hitters that seems to get younger every week.

“They’re going to figure it out. And we’re going to go,” Lester said. “This is obviously a results-driven industry. But the plans as far as on the mound and in the batter’s box have looked a lot smoother right now, a lot cleaner.

“We’ve played solid baseball for a little while now. Hopefully, we can get those results going in the right way.”

That was literally the right way for under-25 hitters Albert Almora Jr., Addison Russell and Baez when they delivered opposite-field hits for, respectively, a tying double in the fourth, a leadoff double in the sixth and a go-ahead, two-run double later in the sixth.

“As we do that, we will hit better in situations,” manager Joe Maddon said. “That’s the key to being able to drive in runs, not on the pull side all the time.

Baez said the approach is a key to him having a strong finish. But he said the big difference between this year and last year is who’s batting first.

“Pretty much not having a leadoff guy right now is kind of tough,” he said.

Baez said “everybody” is ready to pitch in and try to fill the void. But whether everybody — or anybody — can do it, that won’t tell the story of this season once it’s in the books.

That story is going to be told by Lester, the man paid $155 million to help write it, and the rest of the rotation.

“That’s as well as I’ve seen him pitch,” Maddon said. “I know he had a great run last year also. From a stuff perspective, a command perspective, it’s as good as he can pitch.

“Jonny’s just got this thing going on. He knows where the ball’s going, and he gets the high number of velocity when he wants to.”

If Lester (5-4) can continue to follow a lackluster first two months with the kind of finish that made him the runner-up in Cy Young voting last year, it could be a game-changer for the Cubs in a National League Central race that might be won with fewer than 90 wins.

Lester’s performance put the rotation’s ERA at 2.52 for the last 11 games (7-4 in that run).

“I feel better now than I did in April and May, for sure,” Lester said. “Bigger bodies take a while. Some years you come out like gangbusters and you’re ready to go and your body feels fine. Other years it takes a while to get into that rhythm of pitching every five days again. This was one of those years.”

Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.

Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com

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