The Red Sox go for the split of their four-game weekend series with the Royals Sunday afternoon. The Sox suffered from poor starting pitching performances by Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield, both of whom failed to make it past the fifth inning, in their losses in the first two games of the series, but Clay Buchholz single-handedly reversed that trend Saturday with his seven-inning performance in the 1-0 Sox win. Ace Jon Lester will look to make it two solid starts by Sox pitchers Sunday as he takes the mound against fellow lefty Bruce Chen of the Royals.

Lester (5-2, 3.15 ERA) will cap an absolutely spectacular month of May during which he has gone 4-0 with a miniscule 1.95 ERA and 40 strikeouts over 37 innings. Over his last three starts alone, he has struck out 28 batters. If history is any indicator, he has a very good shot at continuing his dominance when he faces the Royals Sunday. Lester is 3-1 all-time against Kansas City and with just a 1.20 ERA in his four starts. In fact, Lester pitched 17 scoreless innings between his last two appearances against the Royals with nine of those innings coming in his famed 2008 no-hitter.

That no-hitter is just one of the reasons explaining David DeJesus’s poor performance against Lester. The left-handed outfielder is just 1-for-12 against Boston’s lefty ace all-time. But Lester may need all he’s got to retire DeJesus as the KC outfielder comes into Sunday’s matchup on an 11-game hitting streak. In the three games he’s played in Boston this weekend, DeJesus is a combined 7-for-12 with four RBI, including a 4-for-6, two-RBI performance in the Royals’ 12-5 win Friday night.

At the other end of the lineup card will be Bruce Chen (1-0, 2.89), who is making his first start of the season Sunday. Chen has been solid in relief for the Royals with nine strikeouts over 9 1/3 innings and even racked up a save in his second appearance of the season. However, he hasn’t pitched for more than 1 2/3 innings in any of his outings and has been wild at times with eight walks this season. He made nine starts for KC last season, going 1-6 with a 5.81 ERA.

With Saturday’s win, the Red Sox stayed an even six games back of the AL East leading Rays and closed the gap between them and the second-place Yankees to just two games after New York’s 13-11 loss to Cleveland. The Sox remain a game behind third-place Toronto.

Red Sox vs. Bruce Chen

Adrian Beltre (22 career plate appearances against Chen): .286 average/.318 OBP/.429 slugging, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts

Jason Varitek (20): .375/.500/.875, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 doubles, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts

Mike Lowell (19): .333/.368/.444, 1 RBI, 2 doubles, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

David Ortiz (19): .200/.316/.200, 1 RBI, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts

Kevin Youkilis (13): .417/.462/.500, 3 RBI, 1 double, 1 walk

Victor Martinez (3): .667/.667/1.667, 1 HR, 2 RBI

Marco Scutaro is 1-for-3 in his career against Chen. Dustin Pedroia is 1-for-2 with a double, and Jeremy Hermida is 0-for-1 with a strikeout. The Kansas City starter has never faced Mike Cameron, J.D. Drew, Bill Hall or Darnell McDonald.

Royals vs. Jon Lester

David DeJesus (14 career plate appearances against Lester): .083 average/.143 OBP/.083 slugging, 1 RBI, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

Jose Guillen (12): .000/.083/.000, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts

Willie Bloomquist (11): .200/.273/.200, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

Yuniesky Betancourt (10): .500/.600/1.000, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 double, 2 walks

Billy Butler (6): .000/.167/.000, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts

Scott Podsednik (6): .500/.500/.500, 1 strikeout

Alberto Callaspo (4): .000/.250/.000, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Wilson Betemit, Chris Getz and Jason Kendall are all 0-for-3 against Lester with Betemit and Getz striking out twice and once respectively. The Boston starter has never faced Mike Aviles, Mitch Maier or Brayan Pena.