David Price is the Red Sox' ace.
Right now, that is a fact.
You need a win to stop your team's losing ways. You need to beat one of the best teams in baseball. You need to go at least six innings. You turn your back on what has happened in the past and springboard your team to the future. This is what should be expected of a team's ace. All of it fit the bill for the pitcher who has bobbed and weaved in and out of injuries to land with his team's most prestigious title.
That hasn't always been the case, but it is now.
"He set the tone during the week," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora after Price led the Red Sox to their 8-5 win over the Yankees Sunday night. "I knew it. We talked about it. He was prepared. He was throwing the ball well. I think he went to some places today that he didn't last year and made some adjustments. Like I said, he found some things in October that have carried on throughout the season and he's in a good place right now." (For a complete recap of the Red Sox' win, click here.)
It's almost as if the Price conversation has changed while a few noticed. So many were rightfully focused on the trials and tribulations of anchors such as Chris Sale, the bullpen or key members of the lineup that identifying the lefty for what he has become wasn't a priority.
Yet Sunday helped put Price's season in neon lights. When you do what he did (6 1/3 innings, 2 runs) in a place where your previous six starts as a member of the Red Sox had resulted in six losses and a 9.79 ERA (and .380 batting average against) it tends to separate itself.
Sure, there was no Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge, but so be it. Those guys weren't around for the series' first two games either and how did that end up?
"It feels good," he said. "To pitch well in a place I haven't pitched well in a while, against a team that's given me problems, it feels good."
Now that we're paying closer attention it's a worthwhile exercise to identify where Price is at after exactly 100 starts in this uniform.
In his Red Sox career, the team is now 60-40 in his starts, with the lefty's overall ERA sitting at 3.66. Of starters making at least 90 starts over this period Price's ERA is 15th-best, slightly better than Gerrit Cole and just shy of Trevor Bauer.
What he has done this year is placing him among the game's best thus far, totaling a 2.83 ERA in 10 starts. There hasn't been one out so far where things off come off the rails, with Price offering the image of the kind of consistency the Red Sox so desperately needs. It has also put Price firmly in the conversation for an All-Star berth, with just six American League starters with at least 10 starts carrying a better ERA (Jake Odorizzi, Justin Verlander, Lucas Giolito, Charlie Morton, Mike Minor, Frankie Montas)
There is no way of telling where things will go from here. Hiccups like the elbow tendonitis-induced injured list stint offer some pause when totally buying into Price as this rotation's anchor. But for now, he represents exactly what this team needs.
"He's been doing it since, it's tough to say it, since 2008," Cora said. "He knows, he prepares. When he's healthy, he's one of the best pitchers in the big leagues. You start looking at the scoreboard and the numbers it's like, whoa, the ERA is there and the WHIP is there and the strikeouts are there. He's been great. He set the tempo in Toronto the last two innings and the outing against Cleveland, not too many people talk about it, but he was down for like an hour and 15 and he came out and did a good job. So now he gave us a chance to win. So he'll be ready for the next one, I think it's against Tampa, and we expect him to go out there and do the things that he's been doing during the season."
Price's win was helped along by some welcome power out of both J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts, each hitting their 12th homer of the season.
Bogie, you are cleared for takeoff. pic.twitter.com/mRp5OGiZ5S
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) June 3, 2019
