The numbers mean nothing, and yet they mean everything.
Nobody who knows anything would say that David Price can't pitch in the postseason, but by now just about everybody knows Price hasn't won in the postseason—not once, at least not as a starter.
Seven career starts. Seven losses.
It means nothing, because Price has pitched very well in quite a few of those games in fact. It means everything, because in this month even more than in all other months, the end result counts above all.
For Price, just as with Clayton Kershaw, the end result in October has been a total departure from everything that happens from April to September.
Kershaw got his chance to change the story last week—and he did. Price gets his chance Friday.
Marco Estrada's brilliant Game 5 effort for the Toronto Blue Jays saved a Game 6 start for Price. Now Price can save the Blue Jays' season for another day, save a Game 7 start for Marcus Stroman and perhaps even set himself up for a World Series that would truly change the story.
All he has to do is win. All he has to do is pitch the type of game he has pitched 104 times in the regular season, the type of game he even pitched in a must-win Game 163 two years ago for the Tampa Bay Rays.
He's done it enough times to win a Cy Young Award and finish second in Cy Young voting another time (he'll finish first or second this year, too). He's done it enough times that sometime in the next few months, he might get the biggest free-agent contract anyone has ever given to a pitcher.
There's no reason to think he won't do it Friday. No reason, except that when you're 0-7 in postseason starts, people can start having doubts.
Kershaw heard it. And as B/R's Scott Miller wrote just last week in a column on the Los Angeles Dodgers ace, reputations are built during the regular season, but legends are built in October.
The night that appeared, Kershaw dominated the New York Mets, breaking his own puzzling six-start postseason winless streak. If the Dodgers had followed up by beating the Mets in Game 5, Kershaw could have spent this week working on legend status.
Instead, Price has that chance.
If you watched the first six innings of his Game 2 start Sunday (one single, no other hits, no runs, seven strikeouts), you know what's possible. If you watched the five-run seventh inning, you know the other side of it.
As Price himself tweeted that night, it's all up to him:
And as he tweeted the next morning, the chance is still there for him:
It's a little funny to think this is even an issue, since Price was a 23-year-old postseason star for the 2008 Rays. But that was all out of the bullpen, and two years later, Price lost twice as a starter (both to Cliff Lee). In 2011, he carried a shutout through six innings against the Rangers before a three-run seventh inning cost him the game.
He lost while pitching poorly in 2013 for the Rays in Boston, and lost despite pitching great last year for the Detroit Tigers against Baltimore (eight innings, two runs, five hits). He has a win this October, but it came in relief in the division series.
Each time the question is asked, Price says there's no reason the postseason should be any different from the regular season.
"Just go out there and make pitches and let our defense play defense," he said before Game 2. "Put up some early zeroes, let our offense settle in, go out there and get that lead."
He did that. The Blue Jays led 3-0 after six innings.
In the end, it was another loss.
The Jays recovered, winning two of three in Toronto to send the series back to Kansas City and back to Price. They had to win Wednesday to do it, and because they did, they had Price available to pitch out of the bullpen if needed.
Because of Estrada, they didn't need him Wednesday. They absolutely need him Friday.
"That really worked out perfectly," Jays manager John Gibbons said.
It worked out perfectly for the Blue Jays and perfectly for Price, who still has a chance to make this postseason his own.
One win Friday and two wins in the World Series would mean everything.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments