David Price shouldn’t start again in the postseason

After Saturday night’s horrific start, David Price still has yet to win a playoff game in a Sox uniform. He only has two postseason wins in his career, with one of those wins actually coming against the Red Sox. He has proven to be consistently ineffective in the postseason, and at this point how can one have faith at him in October?

In Game Two he was yanked from the game after one-and-two-third innings, allowing two homers and recording no strikeouts. Alex Cora was not messing around, indicating that his trust for the southpaw in this environment was not high to begin with.

Price undeniably had a good regular season going 16-7 with a 3.58 ERA. The ERA could be better, but it was largely dragged down by some inconsistency earlier in the year. He came up big in some games, particularly in Chris Sale’s absence, to help boost the Sox to victory. When Price has to pitch in a playoff game, from the outside it seems he gets into his own head, and at that point it’s pretty much over.

Saturday night’s performance was awful, untimely and once again proves that the Price has not gotten over whatever it is that plagues him this time of year. In his nine years of postseason pitching, Price is 2-9 with a 6.03 ERA. I’m not sure what goes on with Red Sox management deciding to start Price in the postseason year after year with bad results. Definition of insanity and all that.

Price would be much more effective in the bullpen. He wouldn’t receive nearly as much criticism in a bullpen that isn’t too good to begin with AND the pressure would be off his back from starting situations. He could easily be a great reliever, and has been in the past both last year and very early in his career. Whatever the case may be as to why he doesn’t pitch well in the postseason, the Sox should seriously consider him to be a reliever.

This has been a question for as long as I can remember, and each time Price is put in as a starter instead of put in the bullpen things have gone sideways. He has shown that he can be a consistent, powerful reliever on the mound. He would be trusted more as a reliever than a starter.

His mental toughness should really not be questioned though, thats the easy route to take when criticizing him. No one really knows what happens to him in the postseason, all we know is that he should be better. The answer to him getting better should be to put him in the bullpen and see how it goes from there. There’s only so many bad October starts one should be able to take before you look to change the plan.