Price gem does it
Lefty excels to push Sox into World Series
HOUSTON — After his disastrous performance in the Division Series, it was fair to wonder if David Price would start a playoff game again.
Almost no one saw this coming.
All along, Red Sox manager Alex Cora backed the $217 million pitcher, and trusted that he would find success in the postseason. It showed when he sent him out for Game 2 of this American League Cham- pionship Series, and it showed again last night.
At long last, in the biggest moment of them all, Price delivered in the playoffs, and the Red Sox are going to the World Series because of it.
Pitching on three days’ rest for the second time in his career, Price was masterful. He threw six shutout innings, gave up just three hits and struck out a postseason career-high nine as he outdueled Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander, leading the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory and an American League pennant.
Craig Kimbrel picked up the save with an uneventful ninth inning.
Finally, in his 12th try, Price earned his first career postseason win as a starter.
Rafael Devers’ three-run homer in the sixth inning was the difference as the Red Sox won four consecutive games to eliminate the defending champion Astros in five, beating them in all three games at Minute Maid Park.
Game 1 of the World Series is Tuesday night at Fenway Park against either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers.
Shortly after the Red Sox’ thrilling Game 4 victory Wednesday night, Price was asked how throwing a bullpen during the game would affect him for the next night.
The left-hander had thrown a lot of pitches in the bullpen as the Red Sox clung to a late lead, but he was optimistic.
“I think it will just make me a little more sharp for tomorrow,” Price said. “It might be a new thing for me to do the day before I pitch.”
He might have been on to something.
It didn’t matter that he had thrown that bullpen, and it didn’t matter that he was about to pitch on three days’ rest.
The difference for Price on this night was the supreme command of his changeup.
After throwing it just nine times total in 42⁄3 innings of his Game 2 outing, Price relied on it more than any pitch in Game 5. He used it 35 times, inducing 11 swings and misses. Of his eight strikeouts, he used the changeup four times as his put-away pitch, including getting Jose Altuve swinging on it to end the sixth.
After he struck out Altuve, Price let out a scream as he walked off the mound.
The only real trouble Price got was in the fourth, when he labored through a 26-pitch frame. Yuli Gurriel won a ninepitch at-bat when he hit a twoout double to left, but Price responded by striking out Marwin Gonzalez to end the inning.
Price then set down the Astros with 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth.
The Red Sox struck first when J.D. Martinez homered off Verlander in the third. Martinez escaped a strikeout when an 0-2 slider on the outside corner was called a ball. But on the next pitch, Martinez crushed Verlander’s hanging curveball. It stayed fair down the left-field line, smacking off the wall behind the left-field porch.
It was Martinez’s first home run since his three-run blast in Game 1 of the ALDS.