David Price said it wasn't the distraction of his feud with Dennis Eckersley resurfacing this week that led to his first loss at Camden Yards and worst start ever against the Baltimore Orioles.
"That doesn’t affect me at all," Price told reporters after he allowed six runs, including two homers, in four innings in the Red Sox' 11-2 loss in Baltimore on Friday night "I’m sure it’ll be used in Boston, but it doesn’t affect me.
"If you think I’m thinking about that out there on the mound tonight, you’re 100 percent wrong," Price said. "Or even last night or the night before or whatever the case may be. That’s not the case. No, it didn’t affect me.”
Instead, Price pointed to his struggles to go deep in games lately. He's been the Sox' most consistent pitcher all season (he's now 7-3 with a 3.61 ERA) but Friday's loss to the lowly O's (30-66) marked the third consecutive outing of five innings or less.
“A loss is a loss, it doesn’t matter if you’re successful in a certain ballpark [he came in 8-0, 2.72 in his career at Camden Yards and 16-5 overall vs. the O's] or whatever the conditions may be,” Price told reporters. “Losing sucks and I look forward to getting back out there in five days.”
Price said his past few starts have been a grind. He went five in a no-decision against the Dodgers on Sunday in his previous start [a 7-4, 12-inning Sox loss].
“Didn’t have very good fastball command. Didn’t have command of anything really,” Price said. “Made some mistakes early on in that first inning, made me pay for it. Just wasn’t good enough. I went five in Detroit [a 6-3 win July 7], it was a grind. Probably went five before that [actually six innings in a 10-6 win in Toronto] and it was a grind. It’s been tough to get early outs… I feel like even 1-2-3 innings are 20-pitch innings right now. So, it’s just been a grind the past couple of starts.”
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