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Lester: I'd rather Dodgers bunt than homer

Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

The Los Angeles Dodgers only did Jon Lester a favor by trying to get into his head.

Los Angeles went into Game 5 of the NLCS on Thursday with a plan to throw off the Chicago Cubs' southpaw starter by utilizing surprise bunts and massive leads to test Lester's fear of throwing to first.

Though it didn't take long for Lester to nearly shank a throw in the first inning, Chicago's Game 5 winner appreciates the Dodgers making it easier on him with the small ball.

“They have a game plan going in that they want to bunt, they want to show bunt, get big leads, do all that stuff," Lester said postgame Thursday, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. "That's fine. I'd rather have Adrian Gonzalez and Joc Pederson and all these guys bunt than hit it out of the ballpark.

"As much as they think it gets me off my game, I'd rather have those guys try to keep the ball in the infield. Our infielders are really good."

Related: Lester stares down Dodgers after making throw to 1st

Cubs skipper Joe Maddon, aware of his starter's struggles with getting the ball over to first, knew the Dodgers would try to take advantage of Lester's flaws, but he told his pitcher not to worry about throwing it anywhere other than home.

"There's always plotting going on. ... The most important thing is that Jon throws the ball well to home plate," Maddon said. "That gets overlooked. I don't want him to get caught up in the minutiae of everything else. Do what you do best.

"What he does best is he throws pitches very well, up to 94 miles an hour where he wants to, and then he has a great cutter and a curveball. So why would I want him to get mentally infiltrated with trying to hold runners if he's not comfortable? We have other things in place to take care of that."

Lester held the Dodgers to five hits and one run over seven innings en route to an 8-4 Cubs win.

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