OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - David Price is scheduled to make one more minor league rehab start with Triple-A Pawtucket on Wednesday before he rejoins the Boston Red Sox to make his long-awaited season debut.
Manager John Farrell said he and Price spoke by phone Saturday morning and agreed one more start would be best as the left-hander works back from a strained pitching elbow.
Price pitched Friday night in Buffalo, New York, then returned to Boston and was working out at Fenway Park on Saturday.
Price will throw a light bullpen Sunday after Farrell said he “threw long-toss aggressively” during Saturday’s session.
Farrell hopes Price gets up to around 85 or 90 pitches his next time out after the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner was done after throwing just 65 Friday following a three-run second inning. Price allowed four of his five hits - including a leadoff home run - that inning and finished with four strikeouts and a walk.
“Just to continue to build out the innings, the number of pitches thrown and get back into the flow of things,” Farrell said of the next goal. “It’s a matter of going out and executing pitches. That’s not to say he didn’t last night but there were a high number of foul balls, deep pitch counts as we know and deep at-bats. But the bottom line is he feels great physically.
“Today he threw long-toss aggressively. And that’s probably an equally positive hurdle as it would have been going six innings last night and 80 pitches.”
The 31-year-old Price, who went 17-9 with a 3.99 ERA in 2016 and led the AL with 35 starts and 230 innings, is in the second season of a $217 million, seven-year contract.
___
AP Sports Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo contributed to this report.
___
More AP baseball: apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball
Please read our comment policy before commenting.