David Price has slowly progressed since returning from the disabled list at the end of May, and Tuesday night at Globe Life Park he showed he might be all the way back.
Price dominated the Texas Rangers, tossing six-plus shutout innings in the Red Sox’s 11-4 win. The left-hander allowed six hits while striking out nine and walking two. He showed great velocity on his fastball, including getting a number of swing-and-misses up in the zone. Price had great movement to his changeup and showcased slick bite on his breaking pitches.
He was removed from the game in the seventh inning for precautionary reasons after dealing with an apparent hand or finger issue, but manager John Farrell had nothing but good things to say about his star left-hander’s outing.
“He was outstanding,” Farrell said, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “He had all of his pitches working here tonight, he was able to get quite a few swing-and-misses to his fastball when he elevated it against some guys, but he threw some good changeups, good cutters, like I said, the power was consistent throughout the night. So he was dominant for the six innings of work tonight.”
And as for the precautionary exit?
“He’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with his finger,” Farrell said. “I tried to get a little bit more out of him, but I wasn’t going to let him labor. And after the way the first at-bat of the inning unfolded, I just got him out of there.”
Price, for his part, was focused on using his fastball up in the zone against the Rangers.
“If I was going to get beat tonight that’s where I want to get beat,” Price said, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “They are a team that gives me a lot of problems ever since I’ve been in the big leagues, so if I was going to lose this game, Â I was going to lose it with my best pitch.”
The left-hander’s fastball was electric Tuesday and showed the Red Sox have another dominant weapon in the rotation.
Here are more notes from Red Sox vs. Rangers.
–The Red Sox now have scored 53 runs on 85 hits in their last five games.
–Price is 4-1 with a 3.30 ERA in his last five starts. He’s averaging nine strikeouts per nine innings in that time span.
–Eduardo Rodriguez allowed four runs on four hits in four innings of work in his rehab start for Triple-A Pawtucket on Tuesday. He walked five batters and struck out five while throwing 88 pitches.
Thumbnail photo via Sean Pokorny/USA TODAY Sports Images
