VIDEO: Jon Lester throws six innings in Cubs minor-league game

MESA, Arizona — Monday was an off day for the Chicago Cubs, their last until a week from Wednesday, the day before the season opener in Texas.

Well, it was an off day for all the big-league Cubs except Jon Lester, who threw six innings in a game against Rockies minor leaguers. Another big-league Cub, Victor Caratini, also gave up his off day to catch Lester. That also tells me that Willson Contreras, who was hit by a foul tip in a game last Thursday, might not quite be ready to come back, as Contreras likely would have caught Lester Monday if he had been 100 percent.

Far from the 16,000 who can jam Sloan Park or the 40,000 common at Wrigley Field, about 100 people (mostly family members of the players and other organization players who weren’t in the game) watched Lester and a team of Class-A Cubs against the Rox minor leaguers on Field 6 at the Cubs complex at 1 p.m. Arizona time.

I took some video that I ran on the BCB Facebook page live (all but the first inning), which I’ll show you in a moment, and I want to thank cubs.com beat writer Jordan Bastian for keeping much closer track of the game itself than I could while I was shooting the live video:

I concur with Bastian — the runs scored as a result of plays that big-league fielders would have made. I thought the curveball looked pretty good, and the changeup wasn’t as “terrible” as Lester thought, but he’s probably his own harshest critic. Also, you’ll note the tweet says Lester “focused” on his cutter; often, a pitcher will do this in spring training, work on a specific pitch for one outing rather than throwing the best pitch to get a hitter out. This is why results of spring games mean almost nothing.

Here’s video of the second through sixth innings and you can judge for yourself. Apologies for the few jostles of my phone and for the occasional poor video quality.

Second inning

Third inning

Fourth inning

Fifth inning

Sixth inning

Cubs minor leaguers who played in this game: Miguel Amaya, Aramis Ademan, Jimmy Herron, Austin Filiere, Zach Davis, Fidel Mejia, Grant Fennell and Cole Roederer. Apart from Ademan and Amaya, all those players are 2017 or 2018 draft picks and likely will be at either South Bend or Myrtle Beach this year.

Ademan led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run. Here’s that home-run swing:

Al Yellon

Here are some other photos I took on Field 6 on an absolutely beautiful, 84-degree spring afternoon.

Grid View

• Jon Lester warming up Al Yellon
• Aramis Ademan crossing the plate after his home run Al Yellon
• Miguel Amaya Al Yellon
• Miguel Amaya Al Yellon
• Victor Caratini Al Yellon
• Cole Roederer Al Yellon
• Victor Caratini Al Yellon
• Jon Lester on the bench with the coaching staff between innings Al Yellon

The Cubs return to Cactus League action Tuesday afternoon at Sloan Park against the Mariners, or at least a few of their minor leaguers, since most of their big-league team is in Japan to open the season vs. the Athletics. Yu Darvish will go for the Cubs; game time Tuesday is 3:05 p.m. CT.