With a career batting average under .100 Evander Kane Sharks Jersey , Jon Lester might seem to be a pitcher who doesn’t care what he does at the plate.

Not true.

”It’s important to have good at-bats. I feel like I have done that regardless of the outcome,” he said.

Lester hit a three-run homer that highlighted an eight-run burst in the second inning and wound up with his NL-leading 11th win as the Chicago Cubs held off the Minnesota Twins 11-10 on Sunday.

”I’ve had good at-bats and I haven’t been just a one-pitch out guy. So I have worked some counts and I’ve been able to at least make the pitcher work,” he said. ”That’s all I’m trying to do.”

”If I get hits, I get hits,” he said. ”The home run is awesome, it’s cool, especially at home. It’s always fun to play here with the crowd and to be able to hit the ball into the bleachers. But at the end of the day I know I’m a pitcher and I’m not a hitter.”

Ian Happ also homered for the Cubs, who have scored at least 10 runs in four straight games for the first time since 1930. Chicago swept the three-game series and has won four in a row overall.

Brian Dozier hit a two-run homer and Jake Cave also homered for the Twins.

Minnesota concluded a 1-5 Chicago road trip that began with two losses in three tries to the White Sox, and fell 10 games below .500 for the first time this season.

Lester hit his second career home run, prompting a curtain call from the cheering fans.

Lester went 10 seasons, mostly in Boston with sporadic at-bats, before getting his first major league hit. Now, in his fourth season with the Cubs Leighton Vander Esch Jersey Elite , Lester has put more of an emphasis into hitting.

”I really didn’t care about hitting there” in Boston, he said. ”I’m worried about David (Ortiz) and (Dustin) Pedroia and all of the other guys driving in runs as opposed to me.”

”Coming over here, it can change the outcome of a game, so it becomes a little more important and you work on it all year. In spring training you’re doing it from part of the second week on,” he said.

Lester (11-2) allowed four runs, two of them earned, and nine hits in five-plus innings.

Mitch Garver hit a two-run homer off Dillon Maples as the Twins scored five times in the eighth. Maples, called up from Triple-A before the game when pitcher Brian Duensing went on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder, also allowed an RBI single to Logan Morrison and a two-run triple to Willians Astudillo.

”Their offense, we just had trouble with it. Lot of big innings, lot of crooked numbers. I think our guys stayed with it. We got some opportunities there and got some big hits to get back in the game. When you get as close as we did late, it makes you think about some of the runs we gave up along the way, so that’s frustrating Reuben Foster Jersey ,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said.

Javier Baez, who doubled twice, Happ and Willson Contreras each had three hits for the Cubs.

Cubs closer Brandon Morrow got one out in the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 19 chances.

”They got out on us pretty early, but I love the fight of the guys in the dugout. I kind of had glimpses of last year’s team and our fight,” Dozier said.

In the third consecutive sweltering day at Wrigley Field with a gametime temperature at 93 degrees and a heat index at 101, the Cubs jumped all over Lance Lynn (5-7) in the second inning.

Baez doubled home two runs and Anthony Rizzo had an RBI double. Kyle Schwarber met reliever Matt Magill with the Cubs’ third straight double.

Cubs shortstop Addison Russell added an RBI single in the fourth inning and made a highlight grab in the sixth inning before leaving the game with an apparent injury resulting in the catch.

Russell bumped into Baez while making the running catch on Eduardo Escobar’s ball down the left-field line in foul territory. He walked off the field and into the dugout after talking to a team trainer and manager Joe Maddon. Maddon said Russell injured his left middle finger and he doesn’t believe it to be serious.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: LF Eddie Rosario, one of three Twins to leave Saturday’s game due to heat was in the lineup on Sunday. Teammates Bobby Wilson and Max Kepler were available, as was infielder Ehire Adrianza, who received intravenous fluids after finishing the game.

”We just encouraged everyone last night to rest and hydrate the best they could again this morning to get themselves in positions to get through the game,” Molitor said. ”You just try to be aware of it. There’s not much you can do: You’ve got to play people and you’ve got to get through the game.” … SS Jorge Polanco’s 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension ends Monday and Molitor said he expects him to rejoin the club in Milwaukee after a stint with Triple-A Rochester.

Cubs: OF Albert Almora didn’t start, but he came in the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement after leaving Saturday’s game due to dehydration. Almora suffered cramps in his legs and was removed in the fifth inning. Almora had a nice sliding catch in center to rob Kepler in the ninth.

UP NEXT

Twins: Visit Milwaukee on Monday as they continue their interleague schedule. Kyle Gibson (2-6) is the scheduled starter. He had another rough outing against the White Sox in his last start on June 27. He allowed five runs on a season-high 11 hits.

Cubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (5-8) will try to bounce back from his shortest outing of season on Tuesday against the Tigers. Hendricks allowed six runs

SAN FRANCISCO — The Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants begin a stretch of six meetings in nine days Tuesday night when they hook up in the opener of a three-game series at AT&T Park.

The National League West contenders also will square off three times in Denver next week.

The Rockies (38-40) and Giants (40-39) begin the sequence separated by just one game in the loss column. Each would like to head north in the National League West standings while sending the other south at the same time.

“We obviously need to make a run before the All-Star break,” Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez proclaimed after Sunday’s 8-5 home loss to Miami. “We need to finish the first half strong, just the way we started the season. We have a good group Deion Sanders Jersey Youth , but it just seems like we are going through a rough time.”

That surely can be said of Colorado’s starting pitcher in the series opener, right-hander Chad Bettis (5-1, 5.23 ERA). He has allowed 28 earned runs in 26 innings in his last five starts, yet has somehow managed to go 1-0 during that span.

He had a similar dynamic earlier this season in a matchup with the Giants. He did not pitch particularly well, allowing five runs and 10 hits in six innings, but the Rockies found a way to pull out a 6-5 win.

Bettis has faced the Giants 13 times in his career, nine times as a starter. He has gone 3-4 with a 4.79 ERA in those games.

The 29-year-old right-hander is 1-1 with a 4.71 ERA in five career games, including three starts, in San Francisco.

He has been stung by the long ball this season, allowing 14 home runs in his 15 starts, and has given up homers in his career to six current Giants, including outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, who had a home run and three doubles in his last three games against the San Diego Padres.

Hernandez had a nice week — eight hits Odell Beckham Jr Giants Jersey , including four doubles and two home runs — but nothing like the one experienced by Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, who smacked five homers among 11 hits last week.

Arenado was rewarded with National League Player of the Week honors.

He has a homer in nine career plate appearances against left-hander Derek Holland (5-7, 4.48), who will open the series for the Giants. Arenado also has a double, a single and two walks in those nine head-to-heads, giving him a .556 on-base percentage in the matchup.

Holland has struggled in general in his career against the Rockies, going 1-2 with an 8.40 ERA in three starts.

Two of those three starts came earlier this season, including the lone win in his most recent meeting, when he allowed four runs in five innings in a 7-4 victory last month.

He had earlier given up four runs in six innings in a 6-1 loss.

The 31-year-old has pitched well in June, going 2-1 in four starts, allowing just seven earned runs in 20 innings.

The Giants enter the series having won five of six. The Rockies are coming off a 4-3 homestand during which they suffered consecutive weekend losses to the Marlins.
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