SOX SILENCE DODGER BATS
With weight lifted, Price pitches free of playoff failures
BOSTON — Light makes right.
We’re beyond David Price having discovered a cure for his Octoberphobia. One more outing like this and he’s going to start making house calls: The Kershaws, the Severinos, the Familias …
The veteran left-hander’s first 10 career postseason starts resulted in losses by his team. Now he has reversed that trend with three straight team wins, two by him personally, and he might have just won his way into not pitching again this season.
Price’s run of postseason excellence continued Wednesday night at Fenway Park with a sterling World Series debut: Six innings of two-run ball for a 4-2 Red Sox victory over the Dodgers in Game 2, giving his club a 2-0 edge with Game 3 set for Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
“There’s no other stage that’s going to be bigger than pitching in a World Series game, unless it’s Game 7 of the World Series,” Price said. “To be able to do that, it feels good, for sure. I’m pumped for myself, pumped for all my teammates and coaches for us to be two wins away.”
On Tuesday, in the standard postseason “day before the start” news conference, Price agreed with a questioner’s description of him as “lighter” in the wake of a perseverant no-decision against the Astros in American League Championship Series Game 2 and then a terrific clinching effort in Game 5.
“[Monday] we had media day. I didn’t have to — I got to look forward to it for the first time in a long time,” Price said. “Today it’s definitely a weight lifted off of me, for sure. Not like food tastes better or anything like that. But it was time. And I’m definitely glad that the time came and we moved past it. And I look forward to doing the same thing tomorrow.”
He did the same thing when tomorrow arrived. As Price explained late Wednesday, “I just tried to keep it the same. Same as in Houston, the same as in every other game. Don’t put any pressure or anything of that nature. Just go out there and throw strikes and execute pitches and rely on my defense, and that’s what we were able to do.”
The Dodgers’ two runs came in a Red Sox-esque fourth, as they strung together two singles, a walk, a Matt Kemp sacrifice fly and a two-out single by Yasiel Puig to jump ahead by a run. Price struck out Austin Barnes to strand Los Angeles runners at f irst and third, however, and he retired the next six batters — with the Red Sox jumping ahead courtesy of a three-run f ifth — before Alex Cora went to his increasingly impressive bullpen to lock it down. “He was amazing tonight,” Cora said of Price. “He was into it, too. I don’t think he liked the fact that I took him out in the sixth, I’ll tell you that.” Cora also mentioned Price approaching home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley to discuss his strike zone, although MLB.com’s zone backed Danley’s early close calls on a few of Price’s pitches.
“It’s the World Series. If you’re not into it, you should probably go home,” Price agreed. “So I was into it.”
Maybe the Red Sox need him again in Game 6, or maybe Price just finished his season on a note more upbeat than anyone could have imagined back in his first start of this postseason, when the Yankees quickly dispatched of him here at Fenway in AL Division Series Game 2.
“He beat the Houston Astros in Houston. He beat the Dodgers here in Fenway Park,” Cora said. “So I’m happy for that because he deserves it.”
The weight has been lifted, the long wait over. The Fall Classic is David Price’s party, and he has plenty of teammates more than happy — and able — to thrive alongside him.