It might be hard to imagine now that there was ever a period of time in which Jon Lester was a young pitcher just trying to find his way in Major League Baseball.

The southpaw has been one of the game’s most prominent pitchers over the last two decades, racking up 200 wins in over 2,700 career big-league innings.

But he actually didn’t feel like he truly belonged in the majors until 2008 (his 3rd MLB season), when he had a pair of complete games that gave him the confidence he could thrive in “The Show.”

Telling the story on the Marquee Sports Network broadcast Sunday afternoon, Lester pointed to his no-hitter on May 19 at Fenway Park when he was a 24-year-old in the Red Sox rotation.

Lester struck out 9 and walked only 2 while throwing 130 pitches against the Royals in one of the greatest outings of his career.

“The one at home – my no-hitter againts Kansas City in ’08 – I was struggling up and down and I knew that I was probably pretty close to getting sent down to figure some things out,” Lester said. “And then had that start.”

The other outing that Lester pointed to actually came while he was pitching against the guy seated next to him in the Marquee booth – Joe Girardi.

Girardi was the manager of the 2008 Yankees and on July 3 of that season, Lester spun another complete game shutout – though this wasn’t a no-hitter.

“My first start in old Yankee Stadium, I threw a complete game shutout,” Lester said. “To me, against that lineup, you sit there and you look at it and you got Hall of Famer, potential Hall of Famer all the way down and was able to have that success there, I think that just gives you more confident like ‘OK, I do belong here.'”

The Yankees lineup that day was packed with stars like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano.

Lester allowed only 5 hits – 4 singles and a double – and walked 2 in 9 shutout innings.

After Lester got done sharing the story, Girardi quipped: “I saw you 31 times as a manager and that was enough.”