MESA, Ariz. _ Jon Lester wasn't crazy about pitching Saturday at 10 a.m., but the controlled setting of a minor-league game zapped much of the adrenaline that could have led to an injury that would have affected Thursday's Opening Day start.
Lester was relieved to throw 57 pitches in three innings against a group of Cubs minor leaguers in front of about a hundred observers _ vastly different setting than the environment in which Giants ace Madison Bumgarner suffered a broken left pinkie Friday that will sideline him for at least six weeks.
"When you have the crowd and big-league hitters, it's different," Lester said. "You have that little bit of adrenaline in spring training. Today was try not to die, try not to field a comebacker like (what happened to) Bumgarner. That's really one of the reasons why we did it on a backfield, just to shorten it, get something out of it and get a feel for everything. Then you're not standing in front of crowd and worrying about results."
Lester said he has chatted with Bumgarner in the past, and the two have crossed paths at a few Scottsdale, Ariz., eateries.
"You can't control a line drive of something to that magnitude that you let go," Lester said. "There's no way of getting out of the way. You just hope for the best. Unfortunately, it hit him in the left (pitching) hand. I'm sure if it would have hit him in the right hand and broke his pinkie, it wouldn't have mattered. That's kind of the bad part of pitching. A lot of times you're defensive."
"Today we wanted to do the controlled (setting). There wasn't one set thing we were working on. We went out there for the last time pitching. This is what we wanted to do."
Lester allowed home runs to Roberto Caro and Kevin Cornelius and an RBI double to Jared Young in three innings.
