Clay Buchholz

Bookending the weekend series between the Red Sox and the Dodgers, two young pitchers will again take the mound at Fenway. Just like on Friday with Felix Doubront making his major league debut for the Sox and Carlos Monasterios continuing his rookie campaign with the Dodgers, the pitchers for Sunday’s primetime game will be relative newcomers to their opposing lineups.

Remarkably, one of the most dominant pitchers so far this season, Clay Buchholz, has yet to face anyone in the Dodgers lineup, except for one: Garret Anderson. Keep an eye out for that matchup as the former Angel has done exceptionally well against the righty; 5-for-9 with two home runs and seven RBI. The fact that the remaining 12 offensive players on the team haven’t faced Buchholz (9-4, 2.67 ERA) before should work to his advantage, but it’s hard to imagine this season going that much better for the fourth year pitcher. He’s won seven of his last nine starts and his nine wins are tied for second most in the AL, one behind the Rays’ David Price.

Meanwhile, Hiroki Kuroda has had a very average season so far for the Dodgers. Kuroda (6-4, 3.10 ERA) started out the season well, winning five of his first six decisions, but he had a rough May, losing three straight games at the end of the month. The third year starter has come back strong in June, however, shutting out the Cardinals over seven innings in a no decision, then picking up the win over Cincinnati by tossing five shutout innings. Kuroda will look to continue his shutout streak against the Sox, a team that has only three batters with previous experience against him.

After LA leaves Boston, the Red Sox will go west, taking on the Rockies and the Giants before coming home for an AL East home stand concluding on the Fourth of July.

Red Sox vs. Hiroki Kuroda

Adrian Beltré (3 plate appearances against Kuroda): .333 BA/.333 OBP/.333 SLG, 1 RBI

Mike Cameron (3): .667/.667/.667

Bill Hall (1): 1.000/1.000/2.000, 1 double, 1 RBI

J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, Víctor Martínez, Darnell McDonald, Daniel Nava, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Marco Scutaro, Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis have never faced the Los Angeles starter.

Dodgers vs. Clay Buchholz

Garret Anderson (9 plate appearances against Buchholz): .556 BA/.556 OBP/1.222 SLG, 2 home runs, 7 RBI, 1 strikeout

Ronnie Belliard, Casey Blake, Jamey Carroll, Blake DeWitt, A.J. Ellis, Andre Ethier, Chin-lung Hu, Reed Johnson, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Russell Martin and Manny Ramírez have never faced the Boston starter.