Red Sox 2, Mariners 1: David Price brings home the series win

If Rick Porcello gave the Red Sox what they needed on Saturday, David Price on Monday gave them what they wanted. This was the sort of performance the Sox signed up for when they offered him quite so much money in the offseason. This was just top-flight dominance from the lefty ace. There was a blip in the fourth on a Franklin Gutierrez home run, but that's kind of just what Gutierrez has been doing to the Red Sox. They've apparently run into him at the wrong time, and paid the price in bombs aplenty. Price was just the latest victim.

But that was it. Robinson Cano singled behind him to put the fear in Boston, but Price got Nelson Cruz to ground into a double play, and moved right along from there. The Mariners managed no more than singles against Price as he pitched into and through the eighth, holding them to just that one run.

For too long, though, that one run looked like it'd be enough. The Red Sox were not hopeless against Taijuan Walker, but they just couldn't get the job done. They ran into an out in a first inning where Walker allowed as many baserunners as he recorded outs with his actual pitching. Then they put two men in scoring position in the second with one out, but did so for the bottom of the order. Travis Shaw struck out, and while Christian Vazquez hit the ball hard, he did so, of course, too close to Franklin Gutierrez.

Two more singles in the third leading into a double play, a leadoff hit in the fourth being followed up by pop-up after pop-up. That was just how it was going for the Red Sox, who couldn't sustain a rally through to the end. Finally, though, in the sixth, with Walker making an early departure, they managed to break through. Still, they once again failed to fully capitalize on what should have been a huge inning. They put together three hits, a walk, and a hit batsman in the sixth. But Vidal Nuno picked off Hanley Ramirez and Christian Vazquez again hit the ball right on the nose but straight at a fielder to leave the inning worth just a disappointing one run.

Thankfully, in the seventh, Mookie Betts decided to forego the whole rally thing and just do the job himself, clearing out an inside fastball and sending it into the Monster seats. It was the big hit the Red Sox needed to make good on Price's outing, giving them and their ace the 2-1 lead. They would fail yet again to make good on a promising opportunity, stranding Jackie Bradley Jr. at third after a leadoff triple in the eighth. But it didn't matter. Craig Kimbrel came in for the ninth, and made the Mariners look terrible with a three strikeout inning.

Finally, the Red Sox have their series win against a good team. Now they need to parlay that into a real winning streak--if not completely uninterrupted, then one that can at least see them with a good few series wins in a row and get them feeling like a team to beat once more.