David Price and David Ortiz used to share a bitter and personal baseball rivalry. On Monday, they shared the bitter personal disappointment of the first game at Fenway Park in 2016 failing to follow their feel-good script.

Price’s first Red Sox home opener as resident ace was Ortiz’s final Red Sox home opener as resident slugger. The symmetry was beautiful for our annual baseball renewal. But both men, along with the 37,160 in attendance for this unofficial New England holiday, went home from the home opener disappointed following a 9-7 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Price’s first start in the Red Sox’ home whites was a lot of gray. It wasn’t a complete disaster, but it certainly wasn’t the stuff of Pedro Martinez or Roger Clemens. Price earned a no-decision, going five innings and allowing five runs on five hits. He struck out eight but issued a pair of walks, hit a batter (that proved costly), and threw two wild pitches.

He left with the score tied and the feeling that this day could have been much more memorable, if not for the third inning, when he surrendered five runs to the Orioles, who played classic Earl Weaver offense on this day with a pair of game-changing three-run homers.

The good news is that now that all the important firsts are out of the way, Price can focus on just being a member of the Red Sox.

“Absolutely, you know even after Opening Day it still didn’t feel complete,’’ Price said. “Today, it did. I didn’t throw the ball the way I’m normally capable of throwing it. But it’s over now, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there.’’

The day began in pitch-perfect fashion with Ortiz’s 15-year-old daughter, Alex, surprising her father with a stirring rendition of the national anthem, part of a home opener homage to Big Papi.

Price followed that performance with some high notes of his own, setting down seven straight batters after Joey Rickard led off the game with a double.

Staked to a 3-0 lead with some help from Ortiz, who drove in a run in the first with a Wall-ball single, Price and the Red Sox were rolling. But the Orioles weren’t interested in being Fenway foils for the Davids.

In the third, Price allowed a one-out single to the No. 9 batter, Caleb Joseph. Then he walked Rickard. Then he grazed Manny Machado with a cutter to load the bases.

Chris Davis (remember that name) flared a single to center on a 1-2 changeup to score two runs. The next batter, Mark Trumbo, crushed a misplaced two-seam fastball for a long three-run homer to give the Orioles a 5-3 lead.

In 11 previous starts as a visitor to Fenway Park during the regular season, Price had allowed more than two earned runs only once. He allowed five earned runs in one inning in his first start in the Fens for the Olde Towne Team.

“That’s kind of been my Achilles’ heel — having that one bad inning,’’ Price said. “That’s all it takes in this game. It can be one pitch, and today it was just that one inning.’’

The Red Sox tied the game at 5 in the bottom of the fourth, when Trumbo played left field at Fenway like Hanley Ramirez, circa 2015.

Price kept it tied in the fifth. On his 103rd and final pitch of the day, he struck out Matt Wieters on a 94-mile-per-hour fastball with Machado on third.

However, he left the bullpen with four innings to cover. That has to be a mild early concern for the Sox with their $217 million man.

You acquire a pitcher such as Price not only to serve as a ballast for your rotation, but to provide your bullpen a breather every five days. But his high-pitch-count, low-efficiency outings have prevented him from reaching the seventh inning.

On Opening Day in Cleveland, he went six innings, having thrown 78 pitches after four. On Monday, he was at 85 pitches through four.

“I’m not concerned,’’ Price said. “It’s just execution. Whenever I can go out there, and I can execute, I can pitch deep into that ballgame. It’s definitely something I take pride in, and I haven’t done it these first two starts. It’s something I look forward to doing in five days.’’

Let’s put to rest the contrived controversy about Price going on five days of rest and starting this game, instead of the series finale in Toronto.

This is the type of tripe that gets trumped up when a team has finished in last place two years in a row.

Steven Wright allowed just two runs (one earned) in a 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday. The knuckleballer went deeper than any Sox starter has this season, tossing 6? innings.

And judging by the way the Orioles have started 6-0, sending your ace against the bashing Birds is hardly failing to use him in an important game.

Sadly, Price wasn’t the high-profile new Red Sox pitcher who had the worst home debut. That honor goes to Craig Kimbrel.

With the teams tied, 6-6, in the ninth, the hard-throwing closer served up a two-out, three-run homer to Davis that sounded like the pregame fighter jet flyover when it left the bat.

Price’s nemesis-turned-teammate Ortiz had a chance to provide a Disney movie ending in the ninth.

Mookie Betts led off the inning with a homer to cut the deficit to 9-7. Dustin Pedroia followed with a single to left, and Xander Bogaerts walked to bring Ortiz to the plate.

With the Fenway Faithful roaring in anticipation of a classic clutch hit, Ortiz grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

The Davids started the day as Goliaths and ended it being cut down to size.

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.