PRICE MAKES THE MOST OF A WASHOUT
Enjoys controlled environment
FORT MYERS — With David Price in the passenger seat and Christian Vazquez sitting in the back, a golf cart zoomed past two Red Sox buses outside the clubhouse yesterday morning. The buses were loading up for a Grapefruit League game across town against the Minnesota Twins. The cart was heading along a sidewalk to the minor league complex.
Behind the backstop on Field 5, a large group of uniformed prospects, a halfdozen reporters, and 18 fans waited for Price to face minor league hitters. One of the fans was Facetiming from the front row of the bleachers. Another was leaning against a post with her back to the field.
Turned out, those two had the right idea.
Instead of making his spring training debut, or even pitching in a minor league camp game, Price threw what can only be described as a high-intensity bullpen. Tucked away in the very back of the minor league complex, where an occasional silhouette was all outsider observers could see, Price was apparently tremendous.
We’ll have to take his word for it.
“Today was my best day for everything,” Price said. “Just feeling strength all the way through. Executing pitches. You guys missed out. It was good.”
Because of rain in the forecast, the Red Sox made a last-minute decision to scratch Price from his scheduled start against the Twins. Initial word was that he would instead pitch in an intrasquad game, but it gradually became clear that wasn’t to be the case.
Instead, Price stuck with an ongoing theme of this Red Sox spring training: controlled environment.
The team re-signed infielder Eduardo Nunez only after putting him through rigorous-but-controlled game-like situations to make sure his knee was OK. They’ve moved slowly with second baseman Dustin Pedroia and pitchers Eduardo Rodriguez and Steven Wright as they recover from knee surgeries. And they’ve had each of the top starting pitchers focus on live batting practice and simulated games before finally putting them into games a little later than usual.
“You get a chance to work on stuff,” Price said. “Right now, in spring training, that’s what you want to do. You want to be able to miss with a pitch and then be like, ‘All right, we’re going to throw the same thing again,’ and to get that feedback right after you throw it, there’s a lot to be said for that.”
Price threw the equivalent of four innings. Vazquez was his catcher and pitching coach Dana LeVangie, switching between righthanded and left-handed, called out specific hitters so that Price could work on sequences.
“It was, ‘I’m Aaron Judge,’ and we’d face Judge,” Price said. “Then he’d switch around to a (lefty), and he’d be Brett Gardner. He’d stand in the box like they stand, whether they’re close to the plate or far away, and he’d go from there.”
Wait, LeVangie — listed at 5-foot-10 — pretended to be the New York Yankees’ Judge?
“He needed to stand on a box to look like Aaron Judge,” Price admitted. “But he just stood in the box.”
It’s not an unheard-of pitching exercise, but it’s perhaps a bit unusual this late in spring training for a pitcher as important as Price. But Price seemed to love it. And when the game against the Twins was canceled, the decision felt justified.
“I feel like the biggest thing in spring training at this point is getting those up-and-downs (between innings),” Price said. “I already threw 55-60 pitch bullpen all the way through with no stopping. To be able to do that, you know your arm strength is there. To be able to go out and throw 30 pitches in warmups, sit for eight minutes, get up, throw eight warm-up pitches, 15 pitches, and to be able to do that four times, and to never have to hold anything back, even in my warm-up pitches and my last inning. That’s a very good sign.”
There’s enough schedule left for Price to pitch in three games this spring while staying on schedule to start the second game of the season.
“The way they’re throwing — the controlled games, or the up and downs, or simulated games — they’re throwing with conviction, with purpose,” manager Alex Cora said. “And that’s what we want. Obviously, we want (Price) to be there and just start feeling the flow of the game, but that’s going to be the next one.”
The next one, weather permitting, will be on Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays. No word yet on who will be playing the part of Josh Donaldson.