TORONTO — Pitching for the first time since May 3, David Price allowed two runs over 5⅓ innings on Saturday, throwing 93 pitches. He left with the Red Sox holding a 4-2 lead in an eventual 5-2 victory. Price gave up five hits and three walks and struck out six.
Tunnel vision replaced carpal tunnel syndrome.
“It was good to get back out there. The more I threw, the better I felt,’’ Price said.
It was in the sixth inning that Price gave up his second run — a leadoff home run by Justin Smoak on a 2-and-2 pitch. Manager Alex Cora had Carson Smith up in the bullpen and thought about yanking Price then, but kept him. That is, until a fan ran onto the field with one out, and Cora thought that the break in the action was a good time to make the move.
Cora wanted Price to end his outing on a good note rather than have someone hit another homer or have the Jays score another run. Price probably would have preferred to stay in and wished the fan had never run onto the field.
“I can’t recall being on the mound and someone running out. I was ready to pitch, but that stuff happens,’’ Price said.
Cora didn’t think Price was happy with his outing, but Cora was thrilled. He saw the separation in velocity that he had hoped to see. He saw Price throw more curveballs than usual, which Price said “raised the eye levels’’ on hitters. Price was pleased with his mix of pitches.
“Having a full mix and throwing all of my pitches and not have to think about it or worry about it was great,’’ he said.
This is what the Sox absolutely have to have from Price. He might be the most important player on this team. He’s certainly the highest paid.
With that $30 million paycheck comes extraordinary expectations. He can’t just be adequate, or even good. He needs to be great. And the reason the Sox gave the former Cy Young Award winner that $217 million deal is because they thought he could be great. Price and Chris Sale are the two players Dave Dombrowski has built this team around.
Returning to the mound after a battery of tests to determine what had caused the recurring numbness in his fingers, Price looked like the guy who pitched seven shutout innings in his first two starts this season rather than the guy who couldn’t feel his fingertips in a shortened start against the Yankees on April 11 and the one who was scratched against the Bronx Bombers last week.
Price said he felt no signs of the carpal tunnel syndrome on Saturday.
After a heartbreaking 5-3, 12-inning loss to the Jays on Friday night, which wasted Sale’s 15-strikeout effort, Price needed to get the Red Sox rolling again.
The Sox gave Price a 3-0 lead before the Jays finally scored in the fourth inning. Price allowed walks to Smoak and Russell Martin, and Anthony Alford hit a two-out single to center. But otherwise he was quite good.
Price’s carpal tunnel syndrome may flare up again, but at least now he understands what he’s contending with. He’s vowed to eliminate his video game activity, if that’s what indeed caused the condition. His teammates should also take heed of the fact it could happen to them as well.
Price was 0-3 with an 8.47 ERA in his previous three starts, but if he had to choose a team to come back against, it would have been the Jays, against whom he entered Saturday with a 17-3 record and 2.40 ERA in 26 appearances, his most wins against any opponent. He was also 7-0 with a 3.76 ERA in 10 starts at Rogers Centre as a visitor. When he joined the Jays in 2015, he went 4-1 with a 2.61 ERA in six starts here, not counting the Game 1 ALDS loss to Texas.
“I’ve always enjoyed pitching here,’’ Price said. “I love the mound. The Jays are always a tough team to face, but I’ve had some success here.’’
Most of Price’s innings Saturday weren’t clean, except for the second inning when he struck out the side, and he then struck out a fourth straight batter in Luke Maile to start the third. Price walked Josh Donaldson in the first, and allowed a single to Teoscar Hernandez in the third, but Hernandez was erased when Donaldson lined into a double play to shortstop.
Price struck out Gio Urshela to start the fifth, but Hernandez slammed a double off the left-field wall, on a hanging breaking ball that was his only bad pitch before Smoak’s homer. Price got Donaldson on a tapper to the third base side of the mound, and the next big two-out test again came with a runner at third and two outs and Yangervis Solarte up. Price had tunnel vision, bearing down to retire him on a popup to shortstop.
It wasn’t vintage Price by any stretch, but it seems like he has avoided a more significant injury and more missed time. Now all Price needs to do is continue to make adjustments with his pitching repertoire.
He needs to be what his contract says he is — an elite starting pitcher. That and only that will get Red Sox Nation back on his side.
Saturday was a good first step.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.
