It has been more than eight months since David Price has started a game, but you’d never be able to tell by the way he pitched Friday night.
The 2017 season was a tumultuous one for the lefty, but it appears those troubles, at least for now, are behind him. Price mowed through the Tampa Bay Rays lineup as the Boston Red Sox earned a 1-0 win at Tropicana Field.
It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the Rays recorded their first hit of the game. Ultimately, Price allowed four hits, striking out five and not surrendering any walks in seven scoreless innings.
Price picked his spots exceptionally well and didn’t waste any pitches. His fastball had plenty of zip, while his backdoor cutter bit well. It wasn’t often that he went to his offspeed pitches, but when he did, he mixed them in well.
The 32-year-old understandably was feeling pretty good after the game.
“It was big. I feel like every five days dating back to March 5th I feel like I’ve gotten better, so I felt good,” Price said following the game, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “I’ve done this for a long time. I like to think I know how to pitch, so that’s what I did tonight.”
While it’s only one game, it was a promising sign of things to come for Price and the rotation as a whole. If he can continue to build upon that success, both he and Chris Sale assuredly will make for MLB’s best one-two punch at the top of the rotation.
Here are some other notes from Red Sox-Rays:
— Eduardo Nunez appeared to tweak his knee in the seventh inning, but manager Alex Cora said he was fine.
The second baseman hit a grounder to first baseman Brad Miller, and as Miller charged at the bag, so did Nunez and Rays reliever Jose Alvarado. In an effort to avoid a collision, Nunez slid into first. He was safe, but he got up and had to walk around a bit, clearly in some pain, prompting Sox manager Alex Cora and the team trainer to come out. However, he remained in the game without issue.
“He’s fine. We just talked to him and he just banged it up when he slid into first,” Cora said. “We talked about that afterward. He plays very aggressive and he needs to take care of himself. The reason he slid was the right one. He saw the guys coming and he didn’t want to run into him, so that’s the right reason to slide. But it’s still a dangerous play.”
— Xander Bogaerts has started the season on a tear, going 5-for-8 with a four doubles, a pair in each game.
The shortstop clearly was not the same at the plate in the backend of the 2017 season after playing through a hand injury. But he clearly is seeing the ball well now, and the refined hitting approach the new coaching staff has instituted that encourages him to attack the ball is working.
“He’s in a good place,” Cora said. “I do feel that there’s a lot in there, he was a Silver Slugger award winner two years in a row. Last year you see his on-base percentage, it was very similar to those two years, it just happens. But he’s in a good place, he’s trying to get some pitches that he can drive … it’s a good start.”
Cora still is exercising caution about getting too excited with the shortstop’s success.
“Like I’ve said before we’ve seen great starts from Xander Bogaerts, but then the second half something happens there. So we’ve got to pay attention to him, keep him fresh, and when he’s fresh he’s one of the best shortstops in the big leagues.”
— Craig Kimbrel was stellar in the ninth, earning the save by striking out the side in order.
The closer had an abbreviated spring training in order to be with his daughter Lydia as she underwent her second heart surgery, and for Cora, improvements on Kimbrel’s personal end seem apparent.
“He did an outstanding job,” Cora said. “For everything that he’s went through, it’s cool to see him — there’s more behind him closing a game, and you could see it. … I don’t know what he was thinking on the mound, but if he was thinking the same thing I was thinking, then we’re on the same page. So I’m glad things are going well in Boston, and we’ll keep pushing for (Lydia).”
