Price’s mystery persists
Soreness may be issue, but who knows?
NEW YORK — It’s bad enough for the Red Sox that David Price was scratched from tonight’s start against the Yankees.
What’s equally concerning is that here we are in the second week of May and nobody seems to know exactly what’s been ailing Price since the middle of April, or that he was ailing at all.
It’s why Price was back in Boston yesterday to undergo medical tests on what’s behind the “numbness” he’s feeling in his pitching hand.
A medical update is expected today, manager Alex Cora said after last night’s 3-2 loss to the Yanks.
“We’re gathering all the information, tomorrow we’ll get back to you guys but it seems like hopefully he’ll be back to us throughout the trip,” said Cora, who could not yet say if Price would be rejoining the team in order to pitch or not.
As afflictions go, numbness ranks high on the vagueness scale. It’s certainly not a cut-and-dry diagnosis like last year’s forearm strain.
Could the Red Sox have been more proactive about sending Price out for tests and getting to the bottom of the numbness after his performance began to decline rather dramatically?
We’ll find out, but right now this is a mystery with few clues involving a highprofile, highly-paid victim who happens to be crucial to the Red Sox’ chances for playing deep in October.
As Bronx bombshells go, the one manager Alex Cora offered in true “BTW” manner in response to a question about Price was quite the doozy.
In response to a general question about Price pregame, Cora said “on that note, we made a change,” and that Rick Porcello will pitch in Price’s place tonight.
This was halfway through a press conference. Talk about burying the lede.
“We decided it was better for him to go back to Boston, check it out, and go from there,” said Cora after saying that Price will not pitch tonight. “As you know, for me, we’ve been taking care of these guys from day one — spring training, first month of the season. As soon as I heard what was going on, I think we’re better off for him to see what’s going on, doing more testing, and going from there, making a decision . . . . Obviously we want to make sure what’s going on.”
What’s going on is that Price is not right at all.
Cold weather in his third start of the season against the Yankees back at Fenway Park on April 11 was the culprit for the numbness he felt then and forced him out after one inning, the shortest start of his career. Prior to that start, Price had been fantastic in his first two starts, allowing zero runs in 14 innings. But after a sixday layoff from start No. 3, Price has appeared in four more starts.
None of them resembled remotely those first 14 scoreless innings.
He held the Angels to just one run in his first start back, but with an uncharacteristic high number of walks, four.
And over his last three starts, he has lasted an average of less than six innings while posting an 8.47 ERA with batters hitting .329 against him.
And, as reported by the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune from Texas, Price said he has had circulation problems in his extremities since he was a young child.
Despite the results offered by opposing batters, Cora said that Price had not reported a recurrence of any problems until his bullpen throwing session on Sunday, three days ago in Arlington, Texas.
The team shut down the bullpen session as soon as Price reported a recurrence of the numbness.
“We actually felt it wasn’t going to happen, it was just a one day thing,” said Cora about how the club thought about the mid-April numbness. “Obviously with the weather we talked about it and we felt it wasn’t going to happen again. It came up on Sunday, now we’re taking that route. He was tested but now it’s something else. We’ll see how it goes.
“I talked to him Sunday and told him, ‘Man, your health is more important than just a start or two starts right now. Let’s make sure you know what’s going on and maybe there’s nothing and you’ll come back and throw a bullpen and pitch over the weekend or whenever he pitches but we have to make sure we know what’s going on.’ ”
Is Price’s problem related at all to his forearm strain that sidelined for roughly half of last season?
“As of now, no,” said Cora. As of now, what’s the matter with Price is a big ol’ weird unknown, which is unsettling more than five weeks into the season.
This is season No. 3 of Price’s tenure here, and while it started off promisingly, his health is back in the news. He turns 33 in August and after this season, is signed for four more, with a $1 million raise next year for $31 million, and then a bump to $32 million for each of his final three years.
By then, he’ll be 37. Surely, we’ll know more then.