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BOSTON – He went beyond a trend, from a past trend, to the realm of the weird.
David Price, a very good left-handed pitcher in the regular season, an All-Star five times in fact, can not make a playoff start. And he got his chance – 10 of them, in fact – and whatever team he was playing at the time, he lost all 10 of those games.
Saturday night was another fiasco to add to this list of lost. Price, 33, who is in the middle of a seven-year deal, worth $ 217 million with the Red Sox, has awarded three points before being eliminated with two withdrawals in second run, and he again suffered a loss in the playoffs of 6-2. The victory of the Yankees who equalized the division series of the American League in every game.
It was the latest addition to a series of trivia that scoffed at the odds.
Consider that Price's record in his 10 playoff games with Tampa Bay, Detroit, Toronto and Boston is now 0-9, averaging 6.03 points.
Compare these numbers with his career record in the regular season: 143-75 with a fine of 3.25 E.R.A. He won the Cy Young Award in 2012, while he was 20 years old with Rays. Since his arrival in Boston and his occasional injuries, he is 39 to 19 years old with a salary of 3.74 E.-R.A. And this year, he was great in the second half of the regular season, recording a record of 11-3 with an average of 3.33 E.R.A.
Now the post-season is back. Certainly, by dint of law of the average or pure luck, Price should have won the second match of Saturday. But he did not do it.
"I know I can win games as a starter in October," Price said afterwards. "That's what I can not wait to do."
On Saturday, the series of problems that prevailed in the playoffs was compounded by its growing number of failures against the Yankees. The price is 15-14 in the regular season against them, with a 4.90 E.R.A., but these figures hide increasing inefficiency.
Indeed, since joining the Red Sox for the 2016 season, Price's record against the Yankees, Saturday included, is 2-8 with a score of 7.95 E.R.A. This year alone, he reached almost absurd levels while he was 0-3 against them in the regular season with a 10.34 E.R.A. and made nine circuits into four parts.
If you include the Saturday fiasco, Price's figures against the Yankees this season look like this: 0-4 out of five starts with a 10.90 E.R.A. and 11 home runs went. Terrible.
"They make things difficult for me," said Price, who was paid $ 30 million this year. "Knowing that, you have to go out there and run big shots in the big squares. It's something I could not do tonight. "
In addition to the two circuits he played in the second match – to Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez – Price also announced the rocket of a single from Andrew McCutchen that shook the green monster, 37 feet high, in the left field. The shot would have been a homer in many baseball fields.
The essence of a successful Red Sox pitcher is to defeat the Yankees and win in October, and sometimes both. Not doing it can make things very uncomfortable, which is exactly where Price stands.
To be fair to Price, it should be noted that he can claim some success at the end of the season and in October during his eleven-season career. In 2013 he started and won a full game win in a decisive game against the Texas Rangers, although this is considered a regular season game.
And as a rookie in 2008, he earned four saves for the Rays in the A.L. against Boston. In addition, he threw six innings and two-thirds of pointless relief in the Boston Division series with the Houston Astros last season.
After the last disaster Saturday night, Alex Cora, manager of the Red Sox, was asked to send Price to the pen for the rest of the series against the Yankees. Cora gave the impression that this option was possible, but he added that such a decision would not be valid for the rest of the playoffs – if the Red Sox progressed.
"No, no, he's one of our starters," said Cora. "Just a bad exit today. It turns out it's not his day. We trust him. "
Price said that he would do everything Cora would ask him. When Cora came to pick him Saturday, the Yankees led 3-0. The game was not uncontrollable. But there were two men on the base and the judge came back to the plate. When asked afterward when he was upset by the quick hook, Price delivered his best nighttime performance.
"If I do not like it," he said, "I have to start better, period."
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