One reason the Red Sox are immune to prolonged slumps at the plate is because of the depth of their lineup. They showed that while Adrian Gonzalez went through his first rough patch in a Boston uniform.
The rest of the Red Sox have been there to pick up their first baseman and the whole lineup will need to be at its sharpest on Friday night when the club returns home to begin a three-game series against Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners.
Boston is the top run-producing club in baseball and Gonzalez has been a big part of that. The prized offseason pickup is hitting .343 with 17 homers and 78 runs batted in over 95 games, but has just one homer this month and two in his past 26 games.
Gonzalez went 0-for-4 in Tuesday's 6-2 setback at Baltimore, putting him in a 2-for-24 skid.
"I'm just getting ready late and not recognizing pitches and swinging at pitches I don't normally swing at," Gonzalez said after the defeat.
The All-Star first baseman did return to form in Wednesday's finale with the Orioles, contributing four hits in a 4-0 victory. He failed to drive in a run for the seventh time in eight games, but Jacoby Ellsbury picked up the slack with his second career multi-homer game. The speedy outfielder has four homers since last Friday and has already surpassed his career-high total of nine set in 2008 with 15 this season.
"He kind of put us on his shoulders today," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Ellsbury. "He has a way of doing that from time to time."
Dustin Pedroia had an infield single in the fifth inning to extend his career- high hitting streak to 18 games. He has also reached base in a personal-best 30 games in a row and is batting .367 over his hit streak with seven homers and 16 RBI.
While Gonzalez has a good chance of contributing to the offense in Friday's opener given he is 9-for-30 in his career against Hernandez with a homer and four RBI, things are less certain for Ellsbury and Pedroia.
Boston's second baseman and 2008 AL MVP has six hits in 22 career at-bats versus the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, while Ellsbury is just 2-for-14 when facing Hernandez.
Those three won't be alone in facing Hernandez as designated hitter David Ortiz is eligible to return from his three-game suspension earned for his role in a July 8 melee versus Baltimore. He has one homer in 19 career at-bats versus Seattle's ace.
While Boston is slated to throw its ace Josh Beckett in Saturday's game, the Mariners will give the Red Sox the best they have to offer in Friday's opener. Hernandez is an excellent 4-1 with a 2.87 earned run average in nine career starts versus the Red Sox, including a perfect 3-0 with a 1.49 ERA in five games at Fenway Park.
The right-hander got a no-decision in Boston on May 1 despite allowing two runs on six hits over seven innings with 10 strikeouts. The Red Sox won that game, 3-2, but it was the lone win over the M's in that three-game set.
Hernandez (8-8, 3.26) is winless in his past four starts, going 0-2 in that span. The 25-year-old lost to the Rangers on Saturday, yielding four runs on nine hits and two homers. He has yielded four home runs over his drought, including the first leadoff long ball of his career last time out, but remains among the leaders in the AL with 146 strikeouts.
Boston enters this series ahead of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East and winners in 14 of its past 17. It hopes John Lackey (7-8, 6.70) can continue that success as he comes in having won two straight starts since a personal three-game losing streak.
The righty got on track with 6 2/3 scoreless innings to beat the Orioles on July 9, then picked up a victory over the Rays on Saturday. Lackey allowed four runs -- three earned -- on 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings while striking out seven for a second straight start.
Lackey, who is pitching to a horrid 7.68 ERA in eight home starts, lost to the Mariners on April 30, but gave up only two runs over six innings. The 32-year- old long-time Angel is 13-10 with a 3.62 ERA versus the club lifetime.
He won't exactly be facing a club playing its best baseball right now after the Mariners lost their 12th straight game on Thursday. The season-high losing streak is their longest since a 12-game slide in 2008.
Seattle failed to win a game in its three-game set with Toronto, losing the finale by a 7-5 margin. Miguel Olivo had tied the game for the M's with a grand slam in the eighth inning, but the Blue Jays' Rajai Davis came through with a two-out double in the home half of the inning that brought home two runs.
The Mariners have lost 16 of their last 20 overall.
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