Red Sox David Price is getting on a roll
By Drew Peabody
With quality starts over his last three outings, David Price is starting to pitch like the ace the Red Sox signed this offseason for $217 million.
Earlier today, the Red Sox received some terrible news terrible news that right-handed reliever Carson Smith would be lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery. So, with the team fighting for first place with a bullpen possibly in trouble, David Price was the right man to take the hill tonight against the Colorado Rockies. The Red Sox came out on top with an 8-3 victory.
When Price finished his seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits, striking out six and walking one batter, he had logged his third straight quality start. Over those three starts, Price has pitched 21 innings, allowing six runs. This is a 2.57 ERA, which is more along the lines of what the Red Sox were expecting this season. Price posted a 2.45 ERA last season to lead the American League, pitching for the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays in 2015.
No one could have expected the incredible outburst the Red Sox have had this season. While a potent offensive club was expected, few thought the Red Sox would be leading the major leagues in runs at this point in the season. No pitcher has benefited from this fact more than Price.
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After tonight’s game, the Red Sox have scored 69 runs in his ten starts. You don’t need to be a math major to realize that is 6.9 runs per start and is certainly not a sustainable thing.
It would have been easy to focus on David Ortiz‘s big night tonight or Jackie Bradley extending his hitting streak to 28 games, but those are just temporary stories. All Red Sox fans hope Ortiz will keep swinging that big bat but few can expect that Big Papi will continue his incredible pace.
What is more realistic to expect is that every fifth day, Price will give you a quality start. Perhaps one reason that the offense clicks when Price starts is that they know that he can give them a big start every time on the mound, so they know they don’t have to score a ton of runs necessarily. This leads them to relax and just start the offensive line moving.
He hasn’t been unhittable too often this season. His 14 strikeouts against Atlanta on April 26 was his best performance of the season, but that is the worst offense in the majors. His BABIP allowed this season stood at .359 coming into tonight compared to .290 for his career, so he has been victimized by a bit of bad luck. He is striking out people at a high rate 11.4 per nine innings to lead the majors in that category, so the stuff is still there.
Price’s bloated ERA reflects the slow start he stumbled through, but his last few starts show he’s getting back to being the pitcher the Red Sox envisioned leading their rotation.