Josh Beckett

Interleague play finally comes to its end on Fourth of July Eve, meaning the American League players will see their National League friends (and foes) for the last time until the All-Star festivities of July 11-12 and then potentially the World Series in October. The Red Sox may not look back upon their adventure through the interleague section of the schedule as the team began the bulk of interleague play 1 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees in first place and now find themselves mired in second looking up at the Bronx Bombers. But that difficult stretch, which included a nine-game road trip through NL ballparks, will come to a close Sunday when the Red Sox send ace Josh Beckett to the hill to face the Astros and their starting pitcher, rookie Jordan Lyles.

Beckett (6-3, 2.20 ERA) is coming off the worst start of his 2011 season in which he allowed five runs to the Phillies – four of those runs came on separate two-run homers by Dominic Brown and Shane Victorino – despite allowing just six baserunners (five hits, one walk) over six innings last Tuesday. Remarkably, that was the first time all season that the righty had allowed more than four runs; by comparison, he had done just that four times in the first two months of the 2010 season. The blip on the radar raised Beckett’s ERA to 2.20, its highest level since May 4, but even then, that mark is still good enough for second in the American League as is his 0.929 WHIP (behind Jered Weaver and Justin Verlander in those respective stats).

Against Houston, Beckett is 2-2 with a 2.20 ERA in his career with the latter stat being the third-lowest among foes that the fireballer has faced at least five times. These particular set of Astros have fared well though, albeit most of their limited experience comes from their time in a different uniform. Jason Michaels and Carlos Lee are a combined 7-for-18 against Beckett with both having hit a solo home run. The rest of the Astros squad has a combined 17 at-bats against the Boston starter.

Lyles (0-3, 4.75) hasn’t been great by any stretch of the imagination in his first six starts at the major-league level, none of which have obviously come against Boston meaning no Sox hitter has faced Lyles, but hasn’t been especially horrible either. He, too, allowed five earned runs over six frames in his last outing (a 7-3 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday) but before that he had allowed three earned runs or fewer in his four of his five previous starts. Still, starts like those won’t get you very far when you’re pitching for this Astros team that has struggled with bullpen issues at times and offensive problems at others. Despite a relatively solid game log, Houston is just 1-5 in games that Lyles has pitched thus far in 2011.

Astros vs. Beckett

Jason Michaels (11 career plate appearances): .400 BA/.455 OBP/.800 SLG, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 double, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts

Carlos Lee (8): .375/.375/.875, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 double, 1 strikeout

Clint Barmes (6): .333/.333/.333

Michael Bourn (4): .000/.000/.000

Hunter Pence (4): .500/.500/.500, 1 strikeout

Jeff Keppinger (3): .333/.333/.333, 1 strikeout

Brian Bogusevic, Carlos Corporan, Matt Downs, Chris Johnson, Angel Sanchez, J.R. Towles and Brett Wallace have never faced the Boston starter.

Red Sox vs. Lyles

No Red Sox hitter has ever faced Lyles in the past.