David Price won’t start any of the Red Sox’s first four games of the 2019 Major League Baseball season, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see the left-hander in Boston’s opening series against the Seattle Mariners.
The Red Sox on Tuesday revealed their pitching rotation for the first five contests of the new campaign. Chris Sale will get the ball for Opening Day on Thursday, followed by Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Rick Porcello for the finale of the four-game set. Price is slated to start Boston’s series opener in Oakland against the Athletics next Monday.
Price finds himself as the anchor of the rotation to start the season due to illness. The veteran southpaw got some work in Tuesday as the Red Sox wrapped up spring training, and it sounds like he’ll get some more reps in at some point during the Mariners series before his first start of 2019.
“He’ll pitch three (Tuesday), then I don’t know, if he wants a tuneup, we’ll do the cool thing in Game 1 or 2 in Seattle just for him to get the feet wet,” Cora said Tuesday of possibly using Price out of the bullpen, per the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman.
Price seems to be on board with the plan of attack.
“We discussed that probably over the past week or so and I’m sure we’ll keep talking about that,” Price said. “Just another rep, just getting out there in a real game, one that counts, you can kind of do things a little differently in spring training, personally. To get out there in a real game, that makes everything just more natural.”
While it more than likely will be a one-and-done bullpen tenure for Price, it’s tough to imagine the five-time All-Star will have any trouble making a quick turnaround back to starter. Price tossed 2/3 of an inning in relief in Game 4 of the World Series last year and two days later started Game 5, which saw the 33-year-old log seven innings of one-run ball to help the Red Sox clinch the Fall Classic.
As such, it would be rather fitting for Price to start the 2019 season the same way he closed out 2018.
