Seattle @ Boston preview
Fenway Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 23, 2010 ) Seattle 3, Boston 6
Other than the result, Jon Lester (13-8) would gladly settle for a repeat of his last outing against the Seattle Mariners.
Felix Hernandez (9-10) won't have any complaints if he can duplicate his last start.
Two of the American League's best pitchers square off when the Boston Red Sox host the Mariners in the finale of a three-game series - and the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader.
Tuesday's game was postponed by rain, necessitating Wednesday's twin bill. Boston begins the day six games back of Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees in the American League East.
Both Lester and Hernandez have intertwined moments of sheer brilliance with maddeningly frustrating results in the past 5 1/2 weeks.
Witness each pitcher laboring through four-game losing streaks during that span - although Hernandez at least can point a finger at Seattle's feeble offense.
Hernandez had a stretch of seven starts where the Mariners scored a total of eight runs. He went 1-5 during the stretch prior to pitching a gem against the New York Yankees on Friday night.
In beating the Yankees for the third time this season, last year's American League Cy Young runner-up worked eight scoreless innings of four-hit ball while striking out 11.
The 24-year-old Hernandez is 3-0 and has allowed just one run in 26 innings against the Yankees, but he is 6-10 against the rest of the league.
He has not faced the Red Sox this season but owns a 3-1 record with a 3.17 ERA in seven career starts vs. Boston. Hernandez got a no-decision in his last visit to Fenway in July 2009, giving up three runs on seven hits in seven innings.
Lester is coming off the worst start of his career. He was tattooed for nine runs on eight innings in two-plus innings of a 16-2 beating by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Prior to that disaster, Lester had rebounded from his own four-game skid with back-to-back stellar efforts, not allowing a run in road victories over the division-leading Yankees and Texas Rangers.
The 26-year-old left-hander was in the midst of his most dominating performance of the season when he matched up with the Mariners in Seattle on July 24.
Lester held the Mariners hitless through 5 1/3 innings, striking out 10 of the first 16 batters he faced and not allowing a ball out of the infield.
Seattle left fielder Michael Saunders turned the momentum with a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth in an eventual 5-1 Mariners victory.
Boston will be looking to build on its three-game winning streak and extend Seattle’s three-game skid in today’s doubleheader.
The Red Sox visit Tampa Bay over the weekend for a three-game showdown that could determine Boston’s chances of staying in the wild card hunt.