Injuries, poor play, and an even poorer attitude have followed ace David Price through every step of his brief time with the Boston Red Sox. This was supposed to be the season he finally put it all back together. So much for that.
The surging Red Sox turned to their beleaguered ace to face the rival New York Yankees on Wednesday night. It took just a few minutes to undo any of the good will the pitcher had developed in Boston this year. Then, things got even worse for Price.
Price pays the ultimate
Through his first couple of starts of the season, Price was looking like the ace the Red Sox thought they brought to the franchise in the first place.
He pitched 14 shutout innings, finally ready to slide in behind Chris Sale to form a potent one-two punch in the rotation.
Perception matters, though, and so do impressions; Price left a poor one on Wednesday. In the first inning of the contest at Fenway Park, the Yankees ran over Boston's starter. Brett Gardner legged out an infield hit. Giancarlo Stanton slapped a triple. Gary Sanchez hit a homer, his fifth against Price. Just like that, the Yankees led 4-0 before they even needed Masahiro Tanaka on the mound.
Gary is scary.
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) April 11, 2018
He now has FIVE home runs in 12 career at-bats against David Price. pic.twitter.com/zOSdNdF70t
The poor performance could've forced Price off the mound, except Alex Cora had no intention of turning the game over to his bullpen after just one inning.
He needed to. Price didn't come back out for the second inning, with the Red Sox claiming it was for "precautionary reasons." He'll need further evaluation from the team to determine what's wrong, but it had to do with an unusual "sensation" in his left hand. Bobby Poyner came out to start the second inning.
David Price's 1 inning start is the shortest of his career, including both regular season and playoff games.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 11, 2018
His previous shortest start came back in 2009 when he pitched 1 1/3 innings while on the Rays
How the Red Sox move on
At the moment, Boston doesn't need to make an immediate move to replace their starter in the rotation.
They should do their due diligence and wait for the results of any testing to come back; perhaps the "sensation" was nothing more than a temporary ailment and Price will be able to make his next scheduled start on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles.
If that's not the case, Boston will have to look toward the bullpen to replace Price. Hector Velazquez and Brian Johnson have each made a start this season, with both only surrendering a single earned run in their respective starts. It's also possible that Drew Pomeranz will be ready to make a major league start by then; he's making a second rehab start in Portland on Friday, and could potentially rejoin the rotation with some rejiggering next week.
