Lester comes within four outs of his second no-hitter

Jon Lester came within four outs of throwing the league's third no-hitter in as many weeks as Blue Ridge blanked Allentown, 4-0, on Wednesday night.

The 34-year-old left-hander was pulled after surrendering a single to D.J. LeMathieu on his 126th pitch. Roberto Osuna finished up, getting the final four outs for his 10th save.

Lester got the Mules to swing at balls outside the strike zone. In 7 2/3 innings, he threw just 66 strikes (.523) but managed to strike out 10 while walking 5. He improved to 2-6 and lowered his ERA to 7.52 and his WHIP to 1.70. With those numbers, a record-tying third no-hitter of the DMBL season would have occurred within weeks of each other but also fit the pattern of struggling starters unexpectedly coming up big. Blue Ridge was the victim of a combined no-hitter just two weeks ago.

With a no-hitter already under his belt, Lester would have been the first in DMBL history with two on his resume. His first no-hitter also came during his first stint with Blue Ridge, dating back to June 2014 when he shut down Livingston. That also happened to be the third no-hitter in the league that season.

Lester lost his perfect game bid early, walking Manny Machado to lead off the 2nd. Adam Duvall would replace Machado on the base paths after a ground out and stole second base but that would be as far as the Mules would get as Ian Desmond struck out to end the threat. Mike Trout led off the 4th with a walk but was stranded, then Desmond was caught stealing after being issued a one-out walk in the 5th.

The 7th inning would be Lester's toughest spot. He walked Eduardo Escobar to lead off the inning but then walked Duvall with two out to put the tying runs on base before getting Eduardo Nunez to ground out and get out of the inning.

Blue Ridge got on the board early. Kolten Wong led off the game with a double and took third on an error before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Edwin Encarnacion for a 1-0 advantage. The Bombers added insurance in the 8th. With one out, Collin McHugh was yanked after an Encarnacion single and Justin Upton greeted reliever Jeremy Blevins with his second home run of the game to make it 4-0. Upton homered to lead off the 4th for a 2-0 Blue Ridge lead.

A year after his no-hitter, Blue Ridge shipped Lester to Tucson in June 2015. The Tacoma, Wash., native was packaged with 3B Josh Harrison and RP Pedro Strop for C Yan Gomes, SP Cole Hamels and a 2016 first-round pick.

That pick would be dealt one more time, going to El Paso straight up for Masahiro Tanaka in November 2015. It ended up as the 14th overall selection, with El Paso selecting 3B Matt Duffy the year that Kyle Schwarber went No. 1 overall to Tucson, who maneuvered to get Philly's top pick by way of another deal with Blue Ridge in October 2015.

The Bombers re-acquired Lester from Tucson in January, along with Starling Marte, in exchange for Andrew McCutcheon.