A true comeback

SEATTLE -- The little things aren't going to bother them anymore. They're not going to get all crazy about a couple of gopher balls, a bad call, or a bloop hit that allows a pair of runs to score. John and Kathie Lester have new vision when they watch their son pitch.

"Just seeing him out there is enough for us," said the Red Sox lefthander's father before last night's game against the Mariners. "That's all that matters. We all have a whole new perspective."

"We don't sweat the small stuff," Kathie Lester added as she stood in the hallway outside the Sox dressing room late yesterday afternoon.

Everything changed right here in their Pacific Northwest home last August when they learned their only child had cancer. It's been an emotional ride since that day, and last night the circle closed on their son's 12-month saga when he returned to the mound at Safeco Field to face the Mariners.

Lester was not sharp in the Sox' 7-4 loss. His teammates staked him to a 3-0 lead, but he coughed up a run in the third, then yielded a three-run shot to the immortal Yuniesky Betancourt in the fourth. He threw 99 pitches and gave up eight hits before turning a 4-4 game over to Mike Timlin to start the sixth. Lester's best two pitches were curveball strike threes that froze the maniacal Jose Guillen with men aboard each time. Finishing strong, Lester got the Mariners' 4-5-6 hitters on only 10 pitches in his final inning.

"I really just wasn't very good," said Lester. "I let the team down on that one. I should be able to do a better job than I did. It all goes back to fastball command, and I didn't have any tonight. I really don't like pitching here. The past two outings, I really didn't pitch well, but it's kind of a pain in the butt sometimes."

It was Lester's third start since he was recalled to the big leagues in mid-July, but this one meant a little more because it was in front of family and friends, a mere 25 miles from his Puyallup, Wash., home. Lester was drafted in the second round by the Sox after graduating from Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma in 2002.

"He was one of those guys who was good at every sport," said Lauren Richardson, another Bellarmine Prep grad, who was in the stands last night. "We always thought he was going to go far."

"Any time he pitches in Seattle, it's going to be special for him because it's home," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "He wants to show up and beat the Mariners and that's his job, but on top of what he's been through, it's pretty special."

Lester was cruising along with a 7-2 rookie record when anaplastic large-cell lymphoma struck last year. He was treated at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and, according to yesterday's Seattle Times, went into complete remission after his fourth chemotherapy cycle.

The Sox brought him along slowly this summer and Francona admitted, "I told his dad, 'We're probably going to [tick] your son off,' but we didn't want to let him overextend. We were very careful. We've got a young lefthander whose future is really bright. We tried to put our needs secondary."

After pitching for manager Gabe Kapler at Single A Greenville, Lester moved up to Pawtucket in late April, then suffered a setback when he developed a cramp in his pitching forearm. He returned to the majors in July, and John and Kathie were in the stands at Jacobs Field in Cleveland when their 23-year-old son recorded a victory over the Indians. They did a live in-game interview with NESN's Tina Cervasio, then got a lot of face time on ESPN's "SportsCenter."

"That was different for us," Kathie said sheepishly. "They capture every emotion you have."

Ten members of the Lester family were at last night's game, and another 15 tickets were left for the pitcher's friends. Lester's physician uncle stayed home with the pitcher's grandfather and watched the game on television.

"I'm a little more at ease now," said Lester's dad. "Last time he pitched here, I was pacing in the tunnel and they told me I was just like Jason Giambi's dad, but I'm not doing that anymore."

Before the trading deadline, Lester was battling for a spot in the rotation with rookie lefty Kason Gabbard. The bake-off was canceled when Gabbard was dealt to Texas in the Eric Gagne trade. No doubt plenty of teams were asking about Lester, but the Sox never wanted to part with their prized southpaw prospect, and given the trauma of the last 12 months, it's difficult to imagine Lester could have been included in any deal.

He's scheduled to make his next start Wednesday in Anaheim. If the rotation stays true to form, he'll make his return to the Fenway mound on the afternoon of Aug. 15 against the Devil Rays.

"I think it's starting to settle down a little now," said John, a sergeant in the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. "There's his first game back, then his first game here, and then there'll be his first Fenway game. Once all those have been played, everything should return to normal."

It'll never be truly normal again, of course. Jon Lester is always going to be The Guy Who Came Back From Cancer. And the hits, runs, and errors are never going to be quite as important as they were before everything changed here last August.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.