Schwarber finishes what Lester starts

WASHINGTON -- Kyle Schwarber took a seat at the podium with a noticeable new accessory.

“Rally helmet,” he said of the bright red hockey helmet on his head. “Gotta love it.”

Schwarber was fresh off hitting his second walk-off home run of the season to lift the Nationals to a 2-1 win in 10 innings over the Marlins at Nationals Park on Friday night. Adding to the amped energy of his projected 454-foot blast against Yimi García was the fact that he helped the Nats get the "W" in longtime Cubs teammate Jon Lester’s first start of the season.

• Schwarber lands -- again -- on list of longest walk-off homers

Lester and Schwarber played together on the Cubs from 2015-20 before signing in Washington as free agents this winter. Both began the season on the 10-day injured list because of COVID-19 protocols, but Lester had to wait longer to be cleared to make sure he was fully ramped up to start. When Lester made his debut, Schwarber welcomed him into the mix by homering in a 24th start by Lester.

“Definitely a top moment here,” Schwarber said. “Especially when we’re on a new club and we’re just going out here trying to compete and help this team get wins at the end of the day. It’s really satisfying.”

So when Schwarber wrapped up his postgame press conference and Lester was waiting nearby to take his chair and address the media, Schwarber had an idea.

“Should I give him the helmet? I don’t think he’ll wear it,” Schwarber said. Then after a momentary pause, he exclaimed, “Oh, let’s go! He’s in.”

Lester, in a plaid button-down shirt, sported the helmet for his opening questions.

“It is pretty cool,” Lester said. “You always know with Davey [manager Dave Martinez], there’s always going to be something interesting happening in the clubhouse.”

Lester laid the foundation for the Nationals’ pitching to hold the Marlins scoreless through nine.

He delivered five scoreless innings without a run, allowing five hits, issuing two intentional walks and striking out one. With his 70 pitches (46 strikes), Lester mixed in his cutter (33 percent), fastball (30 percent), changeup (20 percent), sinker (10 percent) and curveball (7 percent). His fastball velocity maxed out at 90.2 mph, a slight bump from last season’s average of 89.4 mph.

“Jon was Jon,” Schwarber said. “The guy pitched one hell of a ballgame -- pounding the strike zone, early outs, that’s what you expect out of Jon there.”

Lester signed a one-year deal with Washington in January to be a veteran anchor for the starting rotation. Since then, the road to his debut has been stop and go. He underwent a parathyroidectomy to alleviate hyperparathyroidism during Spring Training, returned to camp to work toward his first start of the season and then was sidelined amid positive COVID-19 test results on the team.

The Nationals had Lester build up over the past few weeks, culminating in a 90-pitch, six-inning session on Sunday. After he felt OK in the following days, he was cleared to be reinstated.

“I think the hardest part is just kind of sitting back and seeing everybody else play and not being able to be a part of it,” Lester said. “I think it makes you miss it. It’s like you can kind of taste it, but you can’t. You’re there, but you’re not. A lot of hoops to jump through to get back to this point. So I’m just glad that we got through it kind of unscathed and got this one under the belt, and [I'm] ready to move on and kind of start my season.”

Lester is looking for a bounce-back year after pitching to a 3-3 record with a 5.16 ERA over 12 starts for the Cubs in 2020. With a 193-111 career mark, he's seven wins shy of the 200-win milestone.

The veteran lefty took a step in the right direction on Friday. If Lester needs an offensive boost, he knows he can find one in his longtime teammate.

“I know these guys,” Martinez said of Lester and Schwarber. “They’re winners and they love to compete. Having both of those guys and watching them both do what they did today, it’s awesome.”