Price struggles in rehab start
Lefty can’t make it to 4th inning
PAWTUCKET – PawSox fans should mark their calendars for Monday, May 29. The team is home that afternoon for a 1:35 p.m. game against Durham.
Given the short-lived nature of David Price’s second rehab start on Wednesday night, it wouldn’t come as a shock to see the lefty back at McCoy Stadium to face the Bulls.
Price lasted 3.2 innings and 89 pitches – 61 for strikes – against a Louisville lineup that certainly made him work for every out he recorded. The Bats didn’t register a ton of hard contact, though Price needed 28 pitches to get through the first inning and 20 more to get through the second.
Price has now totaled 5.2 innings and 154 pitches in two starts with the PawSox. That doesn’t sound or look like a pitcher who’s ready to be thrown back into the majorleague equation. Asking Price himself how he felt after allowing six runs (three earned) with four strikeouts and one walk wasn’t an option as he left the McCoy grounds without speaking to reporters.
Even if he carved out just a few minutes to talk with the fourth estate, Price would have probably said that he felt great. The range of his fastball velocity suggests that the left forearm strain that kept him grounded for much of spring training and season’s first month is becoming less and less of a concern. Price’s fastball sat at 95 miles per hour and topped out at 96 in the first inning. It went slightly down to 94 mph in the fourth inning.
The goal coming in was to have Price throw between 8590 pitches, a work load that hopefully would carry him into the sixth inning.
Just like last Friday in Buffalo, a long and taxing first inning nixed the idea of Price seeing the mound in the fifth.
Price got ahead of the Louisville leadoff batter, Phil Ervin, then left a pitch up in the zone that resulted in a double. Price fielded his position on a bunt attempt by DH Tony Renda, then allowed a broken-bat bloop single on a 95-mph offering to Jesse Winker.
After issuing a walk that loaded the bases with one down, Price unleashed a wild pitch that scored Louisville’s first run. PawSox first baseman Matt Dominguez misplayed a grounder that resulted in an error and another run.
Brandon Dixon, the No. 7 hitter, drilled a pitch that Price threw right down the middle to a double to the right-center field gap that scored two more runs. Of the four runs Louisville scored in the first, only two were earned.
The work-in-progress vibe that defined Price’s first inning against Louisville carried over into the second. The command/efficiency continued to be a glaring issue. So too did the attention to detail when it came to holding on baserunners. Louisville collected four stolen bases while Price was out there.
When Price would get to two strikes, he was often required to throw six or seven additional pitches before an outcome surfaced. The pattern that emerged over the course of the 11 outs he recorded suggests that another start in the minors wouldn’t be the worst thing. It’s one thing to labor against Triple-A hitters. It’s another entirely different matter when those struggles surface against major-league hitters who at this point of the season have a sig- nificant leg up on him in terms of timing.
Based Wednesday’s series of events, it’s tough to put significant stock in the simulated games where Price said everything felt great. The fewest number of pitches he’s thrown in a single complete inning with the PawSox is 18, which came in a scoreless third inning against the Bats. Price retired the first two batters he faced in the fourth before getting replaced by Marcus Walden.
Health is important, but so too is piecing together an outing where the encouraging signs are there. David Price has yet to accomplish the latter in a PawSox uniform. Perhaps Monday will prove to be different.
Pablo Sandoval, the other rehabber who appeared at McCoy Stadium on Wednesday, finished 2for-4 with two doubles before exiting in the bottom of the seventh. Pawtucket pounded out 18 hits in a 13-6 win over the Bats.
Sandoval’s first double came in his first at-bat and as a left-handed hitter, he sent a grounder down the third-base line.
Sandoval (right knee sprain) continued to look good at the plate in the seventh when he sent a ringing shot into the right-center field gap for his second double of the game. Sandoval also scored two runs, drew a walk, and struck out once.
The PawSox were forced to place outfielder Anuery Tavarez on the seven-day disabled list with recurring right hand tendinitis. Tavarez was on the DL from May 14-19.