Denver ? If the World Series needed any inspiration it should get an injection tonight, when Boston’s Jon Lester faces Aaron Cook, two men who came back from life-threatening illness to meet in Game 4.

Lester was diagnosed with nonHodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer, last September, but made an emotional return to the mound June 23 in Cleveland, where he beat the Indians, 6-2. Cook suffered from a life-threatening blood clot two years ago.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. “I think this game drips with irony at different times for different reasons, and it’s not because of the game or managers matching pitchers up. But it’s happened because it’s happened. And I believe in a lot of different venues that God’s fingerprints are all over a lot of things if we are able to open our eyes and recognize, whatever faith you have.”

Neither Lester nor Cook was penciled in as starters until the last minute. Lester replaced Tim Wakefield, who was left off the World Series roster because of a shoulder injury, and Cook wasn’t even on the postseason roster for the Rockies.

Cook, who was the Opening Day starter for the Rockies, sat out the entire stretch run with an oblique injury and hasn’t pitched since Aug. 10. But Hurdle added him to the Series roster and put rookie Franklin Morales, who started Game 4 of the NLCS, into the bullpen and decided to start Cook in Game 4 of the Series.