The Boston Red Sox hope to find some success when they continue a 10-game western road trip Monday with the first of four straight games against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.
The AL East-leading Red Sox lost two of three against the LA Angels of Anaheim and sustained a 3-0 loss Sunday. Red Sox starter John Lackey was dealt the hard-luck loss against his former club and gave up two runs in seven innings with nine strikeouts.
"John was outstanding, only two solo homers through seven innings," Boston manager John Farrell said. "He threw strikes, we just couldn't get much going against (Jered) Weaver today."
Weaver threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out six.
Jacoby Ellsbury had the lone extra-base hit for Boston, which had won nine of 10 games before losing two in a row to the Angels.
Boston is 4 1/2 games ahead of Baltimore and Tampa Bay for the AL East lead.
Jon Lester will try to pitch the Red Sox to a win Monday and is 2-0 in his past three starts. He did not factor in the outcome of a 2-1 win over San Diego on Wednesday and was reached for just a run in seven innings. Lester is 8-4 with a 4.41 ERA in 18 starts this season.
The left-hander has made nine starts in his career against the Mariners and sports a 4-2 mark with a 3.58 ERA.
Seattle completed a six-game road trip with a 4-2 mark and will begin a seven- game homestand Monday.
The Mariners took a three-game series from the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend and capped the set with Sunday's 3-1 win behind left-hander Joe Saunders, who delivered seven innings of one-run ball. Charlie Furbush tossed a scoreless eighth and Tom Wilhelmsen registered his 18th save in the ninth.
"We're doing a good job, we're playing good quality baseball," Saunders said. "The guys are playing good defense, we're getting some clutch hits and we're throwing the ball pretty good. We just got to keep it going."
Nick Franklin and Justin Smoak both homered to provide the scoring for the Mariners, who rebounded from Saturday's embarrassing 13-4 setback.
Felix Hernandez will handle pitching duties for the Mariners Monday and he has recorded three straight no-decisions. He is 3-0 in his last seven outings and allowed two runs in seven innings of a 4-2 win at Texas on Wednesday. The right-hander is 8-4 in 18 starts with a 2.69 ERA.
Hernandez has made 12 starts in his career against the Red Sox and is 6-2 with a 3.18 ERA over 85 innings.
Seattle and Boston are meeting for the first time since the Red Sox took five of nine encounters a season ago.
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