BOSTON — The Red Sox saw the David Price they paid $217 million for Saturday.
The left-hander went into Boston’s middle game against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 5.73 ERA after giving up five runs over just five innings in the Red Sox’s home opener, and he let that drive him Saturday. Price pitched seven full innings, giving up two runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.
“I hadn’t thrown the ball the way that I know that I can in my first two starts, and to throw the baseball the way that I did (Saturday) against the Blue Jays, which is an extremely, extremely good hitting team, it feels good,” Price said.
Price even struck out the side in the seventh, getting Chris Colabello and Russell Martin swinging and Darwin Barney looking to end his outing.
“It’s almost like he gave you the feeling like there was a closer mentality in that final inning of work, where he finished his game today with a strong exclamation point to a solid outing for him,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said of Price. “But any time you go through that lineup three times, you’ve got very consistent location and multiple looks to get through a really strong lineup.”
And according to Price, Farrell’s closer mentality theory wasn’t too far off.
“My pitch count was just over 100,” Price said. “If somebody gets on, I could’ve been done. I didn’t want to get taken out of that game during an inning. I wanted to be able to finish that seventh inning. For me, that’s the least amount of innings I want to go. I want to get 21 outs every five days. I want to get 27 outs, but 21 is what I want to be the minimum every five days I step out there. And knowing one pitch could kind of ruin my day, I definitely tried to lock it in a little bit more.”
Here are some more notes from Saturday’s 4-2 win.
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— Price’s nine added strikeouts Saturday gave him the most in the American League so far with 27. He’s tied for most in Major League Baseball with Philadelphia Phillies starter Aaron Nola.
Price also became the second Red Sox pitcher in the past 100 years to tally eight-plus strikeouts in his first three games with the team. The other? None other than Pedro Martinez.
— Xander Bogaerts only has 21 career home runs since September of 2013, but four of them, which is the most he has against any team, have come against Toronto.
— Even though not all of the Red Sox’s starts have been great, their pitchers have been mowing batters down.
Craig Kimbrel, who struck out the side in the ninth inning, already has nine of those in five innings.
— Hanley Ramirez made a nice stretch at first base to turn a double play in the eighth inning, and it impressed Bogaerts, who knows a thing or two about changing infield positions.
“Extremely well. Extremely good,” Bogaerts said of his impression of Ramirez at first base. “I’m definitely surprised. I know he was an infielder, shortstop. It’s probably one of the toughest positions. But me going over there to third base (in 2014), I know how hard it was for me, so him going over there is — he’s handled it extremely well.”
— Farrell had another update on reliever Carson Smith and starter Eduardo Rodriguez before Saturday’s contest.
“(Smith) threw 35 pitches of live (batting practice Saturday),” Farrell said. “Came through that fine. His next step will be live BP and a (simulated) game on Tuesday. Tentative plan is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday of next week of two sim and then potentially a game by next weekend in extended (spring training). So this coming week will be a good test for him. Eddie will go with some additional pitches thrown on Monday in a sim game, as well.”
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
