We knew Price would eventually need to learn how to pitch with diminished velocity, even if we weren’t expecting that day to arrive so soon. He still throws a nasty slider and a solid changeup that he can use to keep hitters off balance. He simply needs to be more cautious of where he locates his fastball if he’s not able to blow hitters away with it.
Ultimately it boils down to execution. For the most part, Price hasn’t been pitching poorly. He’s still striking out hitters and the amount of walks and home runs he has given up isn’t drastically higher than his career averages. His 2.93 FIP is actually better than what he’s produced over his career and stands as a better indicator of how he’s performed than his bloated ERA does.
Next: Another Red Sox lefty failure?
Price’s problem is that he’s made a couple of mistakes in each of his poor outings that have come back to bite him. He needs to buckle down and execute those pitches better in order to avoid the big inning that has caused too many of his starts to unravel. At least until his velocity returns, if it returns at all, Price simply can’t afford those types of mistakes.
He recognizes that the results so far this season have been unacceptable. Now it’s on him to figure out how to fix it.