A decent start by Price
Lefty finishes 1 out shy of first postseason win
By being “good enough” last night, David Price did not exactly earn himself a “get out of jail free” card from his long-term sentence in his prison of postseason pain and no gain.
But let’s just say the parole board might view him with a more kindly eye from here on out.
Price’s starting line in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series was on the homely side — 42⁄3 innings, five hits, one homer, four runs, four walks and four strikeouts, 80 pitches and a no-decision — but it was also somewhat misleading and inconclusive. Add all that up, and you discover that Price did not embarrass himself during the Red Sox 7-5 victory over Houston to level the best-of-seven series at 1-1.
Within the crooked numbers lurked a lower-case win.
Not a true “W,” of course — you need 15 outs for one of those, and Price fell one shy.
This wasn’t even a moral victory. His outing did not remotely qualify or approach a quality start and to give him any credit for losing a two-run lead in a critical playoff game would demean starters of all stripes and break the boundaries of truth.
And it’s true he is still winless over his 11 starts in the postseason and that unsightly 6.03 ERA he dragged into the game as a postseason starter added a new wart at 6.16.
Still, with all that said, last night qualified as a victory in the morale department for Price.
Two things happened during his outing that should give hope and lift spirits around the played out but still relevant Price-as-aplayoff-starter storyline.
The backstory starts in the second inning, which began with a groundout and then another groundball that should have been a groundout. On the hard-hit ball by Carlos Correa to Xander Bogaerts playing deep, the shortstop did not charge the ball plus he did his customary doubleclutch motion when there was no time to spare. Correa is fast, and he beat the throw. Price did follow that hit allowed with an earned hit, a double down the left field line by Martin Maldonado. Runners were on second and third. Price retired No. 9 hitter Josh Reddick but his luck ran out against the Astros’ most dangerous hitter, George Springer, who cued a shot down the right field line, a tworun double that evened the game at 2-2, after the Red Sox had gifted Price and themselves with two runs in the first run against Houston starter Gerrit Cole.
There’s nothing quite as deflating as not producing a shutdown inning at any point, but especially very early in a postseason game.
When it’s Price on the mound, the lack of execution is even more glaring and galling.
In the third inning, Price lost a seven-pitch battle with Marwin Gonzalez, who smoked a two-run home run off the middle tarp ad above the Green Monster to give the Astros the 4-2 lead. Coming into the game, Gonzalez was 2-for11 in his career against Price.
Over the last few days, manager Alex Cora had spoken often of how Price needed to separate his pitches in both velocity and location. With his fastball averaging around 91 mph and his cutter around 88, that’s not a great deal of difference, and before Price threw three changeups in a row to Maldonado to begin the fourth, he had thrown just two before that.
By the time Price worked his way out of the third inning, his pitch count was at 54 and the grumbling was beginning as he walked off the mound with the Red Sox down two runs.
At this point, the Red Sox offense, specifically Jackie Bradley Jr., did Price a huge favor. JBJ’s three-run double off of Cole in the bottom of the third put the Red Sox up by a run, 5-4.
Lo and behold in the top of the fourth, Price covered himself in glory with a shutdown inning that was his best of the evening, a 1-2-3 affair that ended with a flyout from Springer.
The score was still 5-4 when Price pitched the fifth.
He began with a groundout, then walked Alex Bregman for the second time. Then another groundout. With Tyler White at the plate, Gonzalez on deck and Matt Barnes warming up, all that stood between Price and the 15th out he needed to at least qualify for his first-ever postseason win was retiring White.
And Price couldn’t do it. He walked White, and Cora had to walk out to the mound in order to take Price off it before he had to face Gonzalez again.
Price appeared to yell something loudly into his glove that was covering his mouth, but he looked calm, cool and collected as he walked off the field to a nice round of applause.
Price stayed in the dugout to watch Barnes strike out Gonzalez and absolve him of any responsibility for inherited runners that could have turned into Price’s ninth postseason loss as a starter.
Before the game, Cora said that he expected “a good outing, honestly, a quality start” out of Price.
“We talked about it throughout the week, we talked about making some adjustments, we talked with (catcher) Christian (Vazquez) about the way of attacking these hitters.
“He’s going to have a good one.”
It wasn’t quite good, but it wasn’t terrible.
And when it comes to Price, not being bad is all good.