Price, Red Sox prove two good
David Price said he felt “lighter” in the days following his brilliant close-out performance last week in the ALCS, and that the weight had been lifted off his shoulders after a postseason career that had been mostly mired in mediocrity.
But given his track record, it wasn’t certain if this was just a flash in the pan, or if he could carry the momentum going into his first World Series start.
It was the latter.
The Red Sox left-hander was excellent again. After throwing six dominant shutout innings in the ALCS clincher against the Astros, Price backed it up with another strong performance last night, pitching six innings, giving up two runs on just three hits as the Red Sox rode timely hitting to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers to take a 2-0 World Series lead.
The Red Sox are now 9-0 this postseason when scoring the game’s first run.
Game 3 is tomorrow night in Los Angeles.
In World Series history, 54 teams have taken a 2-0 lead, and 43 have won it all, including 16 of the last 17 and the last 10.
Price is the fourth Red Sox pitcher to throw six-plus innings and allow two runs or fewer and three hits or fewer in consecutive postseason starts, a list that includes Derek Lowe (2004), Pedro Martinez (1999) and Jim Lonborg (1967).
Welcome to a new version of Price, one that delivers on the biggest stages in October.
The bullpen did its job yet again, too, as Joe Kelly, Nathan Eovaldi and Craig Kimbrel combined for three shutout innings.
Price earned his second consecutive win as a postseason starter thanks to some timely hitting from his offense. The Red Sox turned the tides in the fifth inning, when they jumped on Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu and finished the job against reliever Ryan Madson.
The Red Sox trailed 2-1 and Ryu was cruising in the fifth when it all came unraveled. He retired Ian Kinsler before inducing Jackie Bradley Jr. to pop out, but that was the final out he would get.
The Red Sox then got things rolling with two outs yet again. Christian Vazquez and Mookie Betts connected for back-to-back singles, and Andrew Benintendi drew an eight-pitch at-bat that resulted in a walk.
That loaded the bases, and forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to make a pitching change.
But for a second night in a row, Madson wasn’t the answer.
A night after he walked Steve Pearce, Madson walked Pearce again to score the tying run. J.D. Martinez then jumped on a 1-0 fastball and hit a looping single to right, where Yasiel Puig was playing too deep, and it scored Betts and Benintendi to give the Red Sox a 4-2 lead.
At that point, nine of the Red Sox’ 12 runs in this World Series had come with two outs.
Price was squeezed a bit by a tight strike zone, but the only real trouble he got into came in the fourth.
After throwing three hitless innings to begin the game, Price allowed back-toback singles to David Freese and Manny Machado before walking Chris Taylor to load the bases.
Matt Kemp hit a sacrifice fly to deep center that tied the game at 1, and Price responded to strike out Kike Hernandez swinging. But with two outs, he couldn’t get out of the jam. Puig jumped on a first-pitch fastball and sent a sharp single to right that scored Machado and gave the Dodgers their first lead of the Series.