Although not regarded as a base-stealing team, the Los Angeles Dodgers professed to capitalize on Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester’s resistance — or inability — to throw over to first base. Sure enough, the Dodgers took liberal leads whenever reaching in Game 1 of the 2016 National League Championship Series.
There were large leads, shuffling of the feet, and other disruptive activity during Lester’s starts in the NLCS. But the Dodgers failed to take full advantage of his deficiency throughout the series.
That trend carried into 2017, when on Monday, the veteran left-hander permitted just one run on four hits and had seven strikeouts in six innings of work. One of the Dodgers’ hits was a Joc Pederson leadoff single in the sixth inning.
Pederson, while not a burner, is one of the more fleet-footed players on the roster. He certainly has ample speed to give himself an opportunity to swipe a bag off Lester.
So the young center fielder took his lead in a sprinter’s stance, and at one point stuck his left hand in the ground to mirror a position of a defensive lineman in football.
Lester didn’t pay much mind to Pederson’s antics, though he later scored in that inning on Corey Seager’s double.
