October 19, 2018

Porcello: Price Delivered "One Of The Ballsiest Efforts I've Ever Seen"

David Price's performance last night was the first in major league history in which a pitcher threw six scoreless innings and struck out at least nine batters in a postseason game that clinched a World Series berth.

While that includes only games since 1969 and we don't need to slice history so thin to make Price's night noteworthy or special, but still ... that's almost half a century of baseball.

Chad Jennings, The Athletic:
Alex Cora: "I heard somebody today on TV just blasting David. Blasting him. Calling him the worst pitcher in the postseason. ... [H]e didn't hesitate. It was a bad matchup, one of the greatest against the worst, and all that. I don't listen too much to what's going on outside, but that one got me."

Price: "It's something I've, I can't say I've grown accustomed to, [but] I know when that time comes that's a question I've got to answer. ... I know my abilities. I can look on the back of my baseball card. Those numbers don't lie. ... I know what I can do out there on the mound." ...

Rick Porcello: "One of the ballsiest efforts I've ever seen." ...

Price: "I threw 40 pitches in the bullpen [late in Game 4]. I figured something out warming up in the bullpen, and that just kind of carried over to [Game 5]. [Can you tell us what it was?] No. I can't." ...

Andrew Benintendi: "[W]hen he came out and he was throwing 93 to 95, I was like, dang! And he was throwing a 90 to 91 mph cutter. Then I looked up, and I think at one point he had thrown 45 strikes and maybe like 18 balls. I was like, OK, he's feeling pretty good." ...

Porcello: "When you saw the first couple of changeups he threw in the game, the swings they were taking off it and how devastating it was, you knew he had some good stuff tonight. He kept it going the entire game." ...

Dana LeVangie: "A team that typically likes changeups with the Houston Astros, and something he did not throw last time out, wasn't a part of his mix, and what a great time to surprise a team with changeups. ... His willingness to throw it and willingness to throw it underneath the strike zone [was key]. ... [I]n playoff baseball, if you're not willing to expand the strike zone, you're going to have a little trouble. David's willingness to expand underneath the strike zone with the changeup made him have success." ...

Price: "Going through 1-2-3 in that lineup in the sixth inning after [Rafael Devers] had that big three-run home run to left field, to have that inning after we put up that 3-spot, that was huge." ...

Jackie Bradley: "To come out here and do it against arguably [one of] the top two, three teams in baseball, we needed that performance from him tonight."

Porcello: "I can't say enough about his performance. He shut down one of the best lineups in the league and gave us a chance." ...

Cora: "And tomorrow we can turn the page and move on to the World Series with David Price."
Oh, it looks like Price has a message for the CHB, the mediot Cora heard on TV, and the fans who ignorantly buy into all that click-bait bullshit:

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