BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox’s nine-game winning streak came to a halt Wednesday night at the hands of the New York Yankees, and the contest got off to a concerning start right from the get-go.
Starter David Price exited the game after just one inning due to a “sensation” in his pitching hand.
His command visibly was lacking, as he got tagged for four runs in the inning while placing just 16 of his 35 pitches for strikes. His departure was cautionary, and both he and manager Alex Cora indicated that there isn’t any major cause for alarm.
“It’s alright,” Price said following the game. “I’ll play catch tomorrow and get ready for my next start.”
The 32-year-old missed a good chunk of the 2017 campaign due to left elbow inflammation, so the issue with his hand raised questions about if the two were connected. As of now, it appears it isn’t, with Price chalking it up to the weather and the fact that he’s had this sensation before.
“In my whole hand, didn’t have any feeling in my fingertips. That’s something I’ve felt before but it didn’t go away (this time),” Price said. “I had no pain, even when I came in and did all the stuff with doctors, I still had no pain. … Arm felt fine, arm felt really good. Just had no clue what was going on.”
Cora indicated that at the moment there is no need for an MRI and that Price will proceed forward with a catch tomorrow and will be reevaluated from there.
While expressing uncertainty about if the weather was the ultimate factor, Cora did note that it was abundantly clear the lack of control and command Price had.
“We don’t know if it was the cold weather, if there was an issue there, but he couldn’t grip the ball,” Cora said. “He felt it early in the inning or halfway through the inning, you saw the fastball command, we’ve been praising him about hitting his spots and he didn’t (tonight). You could see him walking around the mound and trying to get a grip and feel the ball and it wasn’t there.
“Hopefully it’s something that just happened today, the cold weather and we move on, he’s able to play catch and he’s fine.”
Here are some other notes from Red Sox-Yankees:
— J.D. Martinez hit his second home run in a Red Sox uniform, and it came in a big way. The slugger blasted a grand slam to straightaway center field, cutting the Yankees’ then-8-2 lead to 8-6.
“I was fortunate enough that I came up with bases loaded,” Martinez said. “We had some good at-bats before that, guys got on. I knew he had to throw me a pitch over the plate kind of deal, and I was just able to put a good swing on it really. Obviously, something good to take home with, but at the end of the day we lost so it really doesn’t matter.”
It was Martinez’s sixth career grand slam.
— Martinez’s slam was the continuation of some massive success the Sox have had with the bases juiced. Already this season they are 7-for-14 as a team with the bases loaded, clocking a trio of grand slams as well as a double.
— Jackie Bradley Jr. had been slumping early in the season, but he turned in a quality 3-for-4 performance Wednesday night, hitting a trio of singles.
There’s a unique trend brewing as to when Bradley has success at the plate. All three hits came as the leadoff hitter in the inning, and he’s now 6-for-11 when hitting first in a frame. He also has reached safely in four of his last five games.
