BOSTON - David Price finally did what he'd been trying to do since he took the mound on Opening Day.
Execute.
Lack of execution, according to him, was the reason his ERA was 5.73 coming into Saturday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was even higher after the Jays scored a run in the first inning.
But Price settled down after that, retiring the next seven batters in order which took him to the top of the fourth inning.
By then, Boston had taken a 4-1 lead, and that was plenty for Price, who only allowed one more run the rest of the way, pitching 7.0 innings of six-hit ball, walking none and striking out nine. The Red Sox went on to win, 4-2.
"Felt good with everything I was throwing," Price said. "Just going out there and being able to execute. That was the key today and that's the key for me every five days."
Boston Red Sox
Farrell was impressed with all of Price's pitches: the fastball, cutter, and changeup. He threw 107 pitches, 74 for strikes, 20 of which were swinging strikes.
"He's got such a wipe-out put-away changeup that he can throw it multiple times consecutively," Farrell said. "I don't know that there's any one area or any one pitch that opposing hitters can sit on and look for."
Whatever Jays hitters were looking for in the 7th inning, they didn't find. Price struck out the side, getting Chris Colabello swinging, Russell Martin swinging, and Darwin Barney looking.
At over 100 pitches by the time he got to Barney, Price wasn't messing around.
"Somebody gets on, I could have been done," Price said. "I didn't want to get taken out of that game during an inning. I wanted to be able to finish that 7th inning. For me, that's the least amount of innings I want to go. I want to get 21 outs every five days. I want to get 27 outs but 21 is what I want to be the minimum every five days I step out there. Knowing that one pitch could kind of ruin my day, I definitely want to try to lock in a little bit more."