David Price vs. the postseason, explained

The postseason narrative around David Price is not a kind one. He finally got a postseason win as a starter for the first time in 12 tries with a dominant performance in ALCS Game 5 against the Astros, but before that it was a sea of losses and criticisms and second guessing whether he was worthy of his contract in Boston.

Before he struggled as a starter in the postseason, Price had a mix of capable and excellent postseason relief outings while on the Rays, but his postseason luck ran out during his brief stints with the Tigers, Jays, and eventually the Red Sox where he is currently in the middle of a seven-year, $217 million contract.

Money doesn’t make fans any less forgiving of poor postseason performances, but narratives also don’t come out of nowhere. In advance of Price making his first World Series start (and first Fall Classic appearance since two losing relief appearances in the 2008 World Series against the Phillies), let’s take a look back at his playoff numbers and whether or not he’s deserved fan ire for so long.

Postseason history

In 85 ²⁄₃ innings across 11 postseasons, Price has a 5.04 ERA with a .250 batting average against him and a 1.24 WHIP. Compare that to his career 3.25 regular season ERA in 299 career games, with a 8.7 K/9 rate and a 1.144 WHIP and you can see how the conversation around his October stuff might start to coalesce into something less than positive.

Before 2018, Price made one postseason start for the Sox. In Game 2 of the 2016 ALDS he lasted just 3 ¹⁄₃ innings at Progressive Field, allowing a three-run home run and five runs total in a 6-0 loss to the Indians. Across all mound appearances in Boston, he has a 4.84 ERA over 22.1 innings pitched in six games, four of them starts. He appeared in a relief role in two games against the Astros in 2017, going a combined 6 ²⁄₃ innings and allowing five hits but no runs.

Before ALCS Game 2 against Houston, Price’s team won four games in which he came in in a relief role. Those games saw him throw 7 ¹⁄₃ innings and allow five runs. With every starting slip up, the pressure mounted and the quality relief appearances seemed to matter less and less. Huge contracts happen to do that when there’s the least bit of evidence to latch on to.

Say Hey, Baseball

Everything worth knowing in baseball, every day of the week.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.

All is not what it seems

Let’s dig into to some of these losses though, because while Price is certainly on the hook for many of his poor postseason outings not all of them can be put on his plate.

In his first postseason start, Game 2 of the 2010 ALDS between the Rays and Rangers, he allowed four runs in 6 ²⁄₃ innings in a 5-1 loss (although he also struck out eight). But in Game 5, he hit the six inning mark again allowing three runs and striking out six in a similar 5-1 loss, this time his bullpen allowing two ninth-inning runs to tilt the result even further away from the Rays.

There are games like his 2011 and 2013 ALDS starts against the Rangers and Red Sox, respectively, where he went 13 ²⁄₃ innings, allowing 10 runs across both games and watched the Rays lose 4-3 and 7-4 in those outings. The run support was there but he couldn’t come through as a starter. However, in eight of his postseason starts to date his team has put up three runs or less. In five of them they scored less than three.

The offense has not always been on his side in the big games. In 2014, he pitched 8 innings in ALDS Game 3 against the Orioles and allowed just two runs on five hits with six strikeouts. The Tigers lost 1-0. In Game 163 between the Rays and Rangers in 2013 — not technically a playoff game — he pitched a complete game on the way to a 5-2 win. He pitched 6 ²⁄₃ shutout innings against the Royals in one of his two 2015 ALCS starts but allowed five runs in the seventh in a 6-3 loss.

Thanks to the nature of the sport those starts, too, become part of the overarching underachievement narrative whether because of over-attention to the game result or not enough attention to what Price accomplished before things fell apart. They merge with the shakier or downright pitiful starts in his past to further undermine his confidence.

Relief work

There’s a reason, when David Price started warming in the bullpen in case Craig Kimbrel imploded again, that Boston fans weren’t as worried as they are when he is set to take the mound as a starter. The “bad in the postseason” narrative didn’t fully attach itself to Price until he was a full-fledged starter for a reason.

Going back to 2008, Price has pitched a total of 13 ²⁄₃ innings in eight relief appearances. In that span he’s given up 13 runs and his team has gone 5-3. He has a 1.34 ERA in those games. Those are quantitatively good numbers that have since been washed away by his underperforming as the guy who kicks things off.

That includes last year’s four innings against Houston in which he allowed four hits, no runs, and helped secure a 10-3 win — one of the few Boston would have in the series. Whether it’s because there is less weight on his shoulders as a reliever or because the game is already in a swing and he has a quantifiable goal to aim for to save a win, he simply performs better.

If the weight of expectations and emotional stress were a trackable stat David Price might be a record-setter in that area. A sure-thing Extreme Stress Hall of Famer. Those days might be over though.

Luck turning?

Before he finally vanquished the demons in ALCS Game 5, he left Game 2 against the Astros after 4 ²⁄₃ innings, allowing four runs off of five hits and walking four batters. The Red Sox would go on to win the game, evening the series in advance of sweeping the three games following to win it, and Price received an understanding ovation on his way out of the game.

After the game, he said smiling “That’s my first team win as a starter. So if it’s baby steps, it’s baby steps. I expect to win. But I’m very happy that we won.” Before that his teams had been 0-10. He said of the ovation,

“It’s definitely appreciated. It wasn’t the line I dreamed up to have, but our offense, our defense, everybody rallied together. That’s what we’ve done all year. Whenever starters needed to be picked up, they picked us up, and vice versa.”

It’s impossible to tell exactly how much the fan support or confidence-boosting nature of the team win helped him mentally when going back out for Game 5 in Houston, but Price’s outward levelheadedness about his postseason performance has always seem to hide a more frustrated interior that can’t understand what goes wrong in October.

After shutting down the Astros in Game 5 with a six inning, three hit, nine strikeout performance in a 4-1 win, Price was far more effusive about his performance. As he should have been, as it was the first time he’d pitched six innings or more in the playoffs since 2015 and he crushed it. If it were a Fenway start rather than at Minute Maid Park, the standing ovation he got for that one probably would have been heard in New Hampshire.

He seemed unabashedly relieved, saying,

It’s one of the most special days I’ve ever had on the baseball field. So very special.

He also credited his mental steadiness and his ability to stay focused on the task at hand.

I continued to tell myself: Just stay in the moment. Don’t worry about the next hitter. Don’t think about the next pitch. Just stay right here. And I was able to do that tonight. And it paid off.

Starting Game 2 of a World Series is a different beast than relief work late in October or performing well in an earlier series. There’s no saying how Price’s ALCS win to finally break the streak could actually help him against a tough Dodgers lineup. But shaking the worst, most repeatable tidbit about his career can’t possible hurt when it comes to feeling comfortable and confident on the mound.

This could be the point where his postseason narrative turns on a dime and he enters a more forgiving phase of his playoff career. Or that win could have been a blip, one example of what could have been as we look back on a career filled with more postseason losses after this.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read Again Brow https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/10/24/18017220/david-price-postseason-history-red-sox

Bagikan Berita Ini