All eyes were on David Price when he took the mound Thursday night to face the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
The Boston Red Sox starter made headlines Wednesday, lashing out at the local media and announcing he’d only speak on days he pitched.
And in Price’s first outing since his comments, he didn’t pitch very well.
The left-hander struggled through five innings, allowing six runs on eight hits with four walks in Boston’s 9-1 loss to the Yankees. Price didn’t have his best stuff by any means Thursday night, but he insists Wednesday’s incident had nothing to do with it.
“Absolutely not,” Price said when asked if there was a lingering impact, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “It was not tough at all to focus today. This is baseball, stuff happens. It happens to the best of the best and it happened to me tonight.”
Price never seemed to get ahead in the count, and New York’s patient approach ran up his pitch count. After the game, the lefty credited his struggles simply to lack of execution.
“I felt good, I felt really good,” Price said. “I had a lot of high-leverage situations, stuff that you want to try and stay away from. Got to be more efficient and make better pitches when I have guys in a pitcher’s count.”
The Red Sox received a minor scare in the fifth inning, when Price noticeably was favoring the ring finger on his throwing hand. He still doesn’t know what caused the discomfort, but he made it clear that it had no impact on his performance.
“It’s on my ring finger, I’ve never had a blister on that spot,” Price said. “I don’t even know how it happened, to be honest. But that didn’t affect me at all.”
That’s certainly a sigh of relief for Boston, as it cannot afford another injury to the pitching staff. But all things considered, there wasn’t much to get excited about from Price’s performance Thursday night.
Here are some other notes from Red Sox vs. Yankees.
— After winning the first game of the series 5-4 on Tuesday, Boston was outscored by a 17-1 margin in the final two contests.
— Price has struggled against New York since arriving to Boston last season.
— After a disappointing end to the 10-game road trip, it looks like the Red Sox will receive a major lift in their return to Fenway Park.
— Gary Sanchez blasted two home runs off of Price on Thursday night, which is not a new feat for the Yankees catcher.
— Shawn Haviland tossed a complete game, four-hit shutout in Triple-A Pawtucket’s 11-0 win over the Buffalo Bison.
Thumbnail photo via Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports Images