Jon Lester on the Cubs' loss in Game 1: 'They found holes'

NEW YORK — One of the best pitches for Chicago Cubs lefthander Jon Lester, particularly against lefty hitters, is his cutter. He threw it for a third of all his pitches to left-handed batters this season, holding them to a .195 average and no home runs.

By his fourth cutter in his National League Championship Series Game 1 start, however, it clearly was not as sharp as it usually it is. That 1-and-1 pitch to New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy was a “backup spinner,” in catcher David Ross’ words, and was “right down the middle,” to use Lester’s phrasing.

Murphy homered that pitch to right field. In the fifth inning, fellow Mets lefty batter Curtis Granderson swatted a Lester cutter for a soft liner in center that scored another run. In the seventh, Granderson lofted a sacrifice fly to left on yet another Lester cutter

“It probably wasn’t his best outing, but he battled with some stuff that wasn’t as sharp tonight,” Ross said. “His cutter wasn’t as sharp as it normally is. I thought he pitched really well for what he had today.”

Lester also allowed a solo homer to Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, a right-handed bat. The veteran pitcher allowed four runs on eight hits and one walk over 6 2/3 innings. New York had the fewest stolen bases in the NL this season but swiped two bags off Lester, who has notorious trouble holding runners and making pickoff throws. One of those two steals directly led to a run on Granderson’s sacrifice fly.

“Other than the two homers, there really weren’t a lot of hard-hit balls, but they found holes, so it doesn’t matter,” Lester said. “In the first (inning), once again I put us behind the eight-ball against a really good pitcher.”

He’s right, though. The Mets only hit three balls with an exit velocity off the bat greater than 95 miles per hour, and all three landed for hits — two home runs and one single.

Against Mets starter Matt Harvey, however, the Cubs slugged more than twice as many pitches 96 mph or faster off the bat but only went 3-for-7 with one solo homer of their own (by Kyle Schwarber), a single and a double; otherwise, they lined into four outs.

“Harvey threw a lot of good pitches,” Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said. “At the same time, we hit a bunch of rockets right at people.”

In hockey, these kinds of bounces out of one’s control are known as “puck luck.” Baseball doesn’t have such a conveniently rhyming phrase — some attribute the results to the “BABIP gods,” referring to the stat for batting average on balls in play, although that’s a bit esoteric for the common fan.

Each opportunity’s importance is magnified in the postseason. The Cubs had a runner thrown out at the plate while the Mets scored on a close play — taken together, that’s a two-run swing on the scoreboard, which happened to be the final margin.

At the same time, Harvey, the Mets advance scouts, pitching coach Dan Warthen, d’Arnaud and everyone who contributed to the game plan deserves some credit for exploiting a clear Cubs weakness.

The Cubs lineup had difficulty against elite heat this season, batting .228 on pitches 95 miles per hour or faster. Harvey’s fastball in Game 1 averaged 96 and touched 98.

The only two Cubs that had better than one-in-four hitting rates against such velocity were Kris Bryant (.317) and Jorge Soler (.261), but they received steady doses of off-speed pitches from Harvey.

For instance, after Castro doubled home Rizzo to tie the game 1-1 in the fifth — presenting a no-out, man-in-scoring-position situation — Harvey threw Soler four straight sliders. Soler whiffed at two, took one in the dirt and then weakly grounded to third.

While most pitchers rely on their fastball in the early innings, Harvey threw nine off-speed pitches in the first two innings — compared to only seven fastballs — which may have kept the Cubs hitters off balance. Chicago led the majors in strikeouts by a wide margin and whiffed nine times against Harvey, missing on more than 40% of their swings against him.

“He was throwing everything early for strikes,” Chicago first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “It’s not like he was just trying to establish his fastball in the first inning. It was changeup, curveball, slider. . . . That’s what separates him. He can throw those pitches, and they’re good pitches. Some guys are just throwers and they’re going to leave stuff over the plate, but he knows how to hit his spots.”

Back in the B.C. days of this season — Before Cespedes — Lester held the Mets to three runs in 13 innings over two games the Cubs won. Marking the arrival of Yoenis Cespedes via trade, however, is merely shorthand for the advent of the Mets offense, which benefited from big second halves from Murphy, d’Arnaud and Granderson.

While Granderson was mostly steady throughout the season, Murphy and d’Arnaud hit for much more power in the second half. The pair combined for 19 doubles and nine home runs before the All-Star break but 33 doubles and 17 homers afterwards, despite 16 fewer games. Those two now have five home runs in six postseason games.

The Cubs lost Lester’s Game 1 start last round in the best-of-five series against the Cardinals, so this setback is nothing new and comes with more breathing room given the extended best-of-seven format — and emerging ace Jake Arrieta lined up for the first of two starts in Game 2.

GALLERY: NLCS GAME 1 - METS vs. CUBS