For David Price, One Bad Pitch Spoils Another Strong Outing
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- David Price threw one bad pitch Wednesday night against the San Francisco Giants, and it came at the worst possible time.
With the game tied at 1 in the bottom of the eighth inning and Giants ace Madison Bumgarner already out of the game, Price left a fastball too far over the plate on his first pitch of the inning and rookie left fielder Mac Williamson took it over the wall for a go-ahead home run. The Giants eventually won the game 2-1.
Price admitted that the pitch to Williamson could have been better, but credited himself for keeping it together after the home run.
"If it's a little more in, it's probably a little bit of a better pitch right there in that situation," Price told reporters after the game. "But [Williamson] put a good swing on it and that was a big hit for him.
"It was one pitch. I wasn't going to let that snowball and cause a really bad inning. ... It happens."
Price went on to retire the side in order in the eighth inning. The closest he came to a "bad inning" was in the seventh, when he threw 29 pitches and walked Brandon Crawford but escaped without any real damage. Overall, on paper, Price had another very good outing in a string of them; Price is 3-2 with a 2.55 ERA in six starts since May 12.
But, on a night like Wednesday at AT&T Park, one bad pitch is all it takes to undo a lot of good.
An ace is supposed to keep his team in games, and for the most part, Price did that. But when games are tied in the late innings and he's still taking the ball, he's supposed to keep them tied. Yes, it may have been just one bad pitch, but it broke a tie in a clutch situation. The later the tie game goes, the bigger the moment grows, and for one pitch, it grew a little too large for No. 24.
To Price's credit, he's not lamenting the loss too much. He's not overreacting, nor should he.
"It's a loss, it happens," said Price after the game. "We're fine. We still have a ton of confidence in this locker room. You've got to take the good with the bad."
Price gave credit to his teammates for bailing him out during his early-season struggles. In fairness to Price, his outing Wednesday would have been good enough to win on most nights.
"I've got 7 wins with a 5 ERA, so it's OK," said Price, who actually lowered his ERA to 4.63. "I'm going to continue to get better and we're going to continue to win baseball games."
Still ... that one bad pitch. It was a dagger to the heart of the asinine "clutch is a myth" argument. No, not all hits are created equal. Brandon Belt's fourth-inning homer on a hanging curveball could be considered a "bad pitch," but not nearly as damaging; a longball like the one off the bat of Williamson breaks backs.
After Wednesday, what did we really learn about Price? He's an excellent pitcher who will give the Red Sox a chance to win almost every time he takes the mound, but his reputation for coming up short in crucial moments precedes him and he remains far away from changing that.
Was an interleague game in June a "crucial moment?" No, not really. But what has Price done to show you that he will be better if and when the Red Sox get to the playoffs, besides insist to the media that he will? Assuming they at least get to a Wild Card playoff, it's highly possible that Price faces another tie game in the eighth inning. He can't be leaving a fastball over the plate and giving up a home run to a rookie in his 21st career game in October. He needs to blow that guy away.
One thing Price has not done so far in his young Red Sox career is blow you away. He has been very good in the past month, but if he wants to be great, which he surely can be, he needs to avoid those crucial late-inning mistakes.
Fair or not, Price still needs to be better than he was on Wednesday. If the Red Sox get to the playoffs, Price can't throw even one pitch as bad as the one to Williamson. Because in the end, one bad pitch was all the Giants needed.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
