Historic Lee.

Shortly after Cliff Lee arrived in Texas in 2010, he had a five-game stretch as August came to an end in which he went 0-5, 8.28, getting tuned up at a slash rate of .333/.348/.538 by three good teams and two very bad ones.

Lee straightened things out over his final four regular season starts (3-1, 1.93, .189/.233/.295).

And then Lee was extraordinary in the post-season, particularly in the ALDS and ALCS, the franchise’s first ever playoff series wins (3-0, 0.75, .151/.161/.209, 34 strikeouts and one walk in 24 innings). Without him, the 2010 World Series would have gone on without Texas.

On Wednesday, Yu Darvish threw a bullpen on what would have been his day to start. He called it “the best bullpen of my life.”

And then last night (seven Oakland runs on seven hits [including two home runs] and four walks in five innings) happened.

It looked uncomfortably like three of Cole Hamels’s last four starts.

Chances are Hamels and Darvish will make two more starts each before the ALDS, when they’ll be tasked with starting at least half the team’s games and will need to be a whole lot better than they’ve been lately.

There’s time for Hamels and Darvish to straighten things out.

And there’s precedent to suggest we may look back one day and wonder how in the world those two number ones looked so vulnerable before the 162+ lights were turned on.