Monday return on tap for Price
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Watching David Price get knocked around by Triple-A hitters did little to keep the Red Sox from rushing back their $217 million left-hander.
Despite a 9.53 ERA in 52⁄ innings 3 and 12 hits allowed during two rehab starts with Pawtucket, Price will make his Red Sox season debut on Monday at the Chicago White Sox.
“I wasn’t very good when I made my rehab starts in 2013 either, and I came back and threw the ball very well,” Price said. “There’s no replacing the feeling and the adrenaline you’re going to have at this level. To me, this is home, this is my comfort zone, this is where I want to be. It doesn’t matter what level you make rehab starts at, it’s not going to feel the same as up here.”
In 2013, Price made two rehab starts in high Single A after missing six weeks with a triceps strain. According to the numbers, he pitched great, striking out 12 and allowing just one earned run on four hits and three walks. He posted a 2.53 ERA for the Tampa Bay Rays in his final 18 starts.
The rehab results weren’t nearly as good this time.
“I felt like I threw some really good changeups, some really good backdoor cutters,” he said. “I felt good.”
Price strained his elbow early in spring training and hasn’t pitched against major league hitters since he lost Game 2 of the American League Division Series last October, allowing five runs in 31⁄ innings at Cleveland. 3
“He’s eager to get back to us,” manager John Farrell said. “I think all along, there was this thought in his mind to get back to a certain pitch count. The work being done was to meet the physical challenge and that’s the workload side of it. That’s not to say pitching isn’t important or the execution of pitches. It is. It’s vital. But he’s passed the physical test and he’s ready to go.” When Price visited Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache on March 7, both Price and the Red Sox wondered if he would pitch again in 2017. The doctors gave him relatively good news, though: Price might need surgery if he was younger, but rest and rehab could do the trick.
His bullpen sessions leading up to his first rehab start weren’t all smooth, and at one point he was shut down for nearly a week.
“I didn’t have a very good outlook on it when I was headed to Indianapolis,” Price said. “Just day by day, week by week, every time I touched the baseball I felt it got better and it’s continued to progress up to this point and I feel good.”
He was clocked at 95 mph during simulated games at Fenway Park in early May, and reportedly lived around 93-96 mph in his rehab starts. During the 2016 season his four-seam fastball averaged 94 mph, the lowest of his career, according to Brooks Baseball.
“I’ve never been one to hold anything back, whether it’s playing catch during a game or in spring training or in a sim game,” he said. Pedroia precaution
It’s unclear how Dustin Pedroia hurt himself, but the Red Sox second baseman lasted only five innings of the 6-4 win against Texas last night.
Josh Rutledge replaced him at second base to start the sixth, with the Sox removing Pedroia for precautionary reasons due to left knee soreness.
“With the conditions tonight, Pedey wanted to stay in the game. Didn’t want to do anything given what he’s gone through on that knee,” said Farrell, who declared Pedroia day-to-day. “When they dump the tarp, there is a lot of water that stands behind second base and when they’re in an overshift, he’s right in the middle of it.”
Pedroia had arthroscopic surgery to clean up the meniscus in his left knee last October, and injured his left leg when Manny Machado hit him with a spikes-up slide in April.
Pedroia has started 42 of the team’s 46 games this season, though he’s only finished 36. Farrell tries to give Pedroia rest in the late innings of one-sided games. Personal connection
A new ticket program announced yesterday, “Farrell’s Fighters,” will invite lymphoma patients and their families to Fenway Park each month for a meet-and-greet with Farrell, a tour of the park, a chance to watch batting practice, lunch or dinner, and tickets to a game.
Farrell said he had been thinking of the idea for a while and the doctor who treated him at Massachusetts General Hospital was a contributor.
“This is a great opportunity to hopefully make some small difference in a day’s life of a patient,” he said. . . .
Brian Johnson will start tomorrow’s game, which will push everyone back a day and give Chris Sale an extra day of rest before his start against the White Sox on Tuesday. . . .
Hanley Ramirez again began taking ground balls at first base, but Farrell said there is no target date for when Ramirez might try to play defense again. . . .
Despite 47 major league games in the outfield, the Red Sox are not looking at
Mitch Moreland as an option at the corners. Sam Travis will continue to play first base against lefties, but “Mitch is our first baseman,” Farrell said.