HOUSTON _ It was 10 years ago Friday that rookie David Price, a 23-year-old seed-thrower, came out of the bullpen to pitch 11/3 innings and earn the save as the Rays held off the Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
It was mostly downhill for Price in his postseason life thereafter, even as he emerged as one of the best left-handed starters of his generation.
"I don't really have an answer," Price said before Game 2 of this ALCS in analyzing his many October failures. "I feel like I've given some answers the past eight years. But I really don't have an answer for it."
On short rest Thursday night in Game 5, Price came up with all the right answers, utilizing a dazzling change-up over six brilliant scoreless innings to help send the Red Sox to the World Series with a 4-1 victory that dethroned the defending world champion Astros at mostly quiet Minute Maid Park.
The 1998-2000 Yankees remain the last team to successfully defend a title.
The Red Sox, who won their 14th pennant and first since 2013, will have home-field advantage in the World Series, which starts Tuesday night at Fenway Park against the Dodgers or Brewers. The Red Sox, among the most nitpicked 108-victory teams in history, improved to 5-0 on the road these playoffs, in which they first dispatched the Yankees in four games.
Price, a much-discussed 0-9 with a 6.03 ERA in 11 postseason starts coming in, dominated the Astros over six innings, allowing three hits and no walks and striking out nine, a playoff best for him.
He outdueled Justin Verlander, who entered 13-6 with a 3.08 ERA in the playoffs, including 4-1 with a 1.21 ERA in five previous elimination games.
Verlander wasn't bad but he was taken deep twice, once by J.D. Martinez in the third inning and, more significantly, in the sixth, when Rafael Devers hit an opposite-field three-run homer that made it 4-0.
Marwin Gonzalez's homer off Matt Barnes in the seventh made it 4-1. Nathan Eovaldi, terrific in a Game 3 start, pitched a scoreless 11/3. Closer Craig Kimbrel, who had been lousy this postseason, got the call for the ninth and walked Yuli Gurriel with one out. He struck out Gonzalez looking and got Tony Kemp to fly to deep left-center to end it.
Price received a standing ovation leaving the mound at Fenway in Game 2 after he allowed four runs, five hits and four walks over 42/3 innings of Boston's 7-5 victory. Initially, he wasn't even supposed to start Game 5; that nod was supposed to go to Chris Sale. But Sale, who started Game 1 Saturday, was hospitalized with a stomach illness Sunday and physically wasn't quite up to making the start (the left-hander would have gone in Game 6).
"He's up to the challenge," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Price before the game.
He was, which was evident fairly early.
In the first, Price allowed only a two-out single to designated hitter Jose Altuve, whose sore right knee would have kept him on the bench if this had been the regular season, according to manager A.J. Hinch.
In the third, Martinez got the call on a borderline 0-and-2 slider that Verlander thought he had for strike three. Then the slugger hammered a hanging curveball to left, his second postseason homer making it 1-0. It was the first run allowed by Verlander in an elimination game since Game 5 of the 2011 ALCS, when he was with the Tigers.
Price responded with perfect 12-pitch bottom half that included a strikeout of Alex Bregman.
After Gurriel's leadoff single in the second, Price retired eight straight, with Gurriel snapping that streak with a two-out double, on a 2-and-2 cutter, in the fourth. Price left him there, striking out Gonzalez swinging at a changeup for the third out.
Cora turned 43 Thursday, and the pennant-clinching win was the best birthday present he'll ever receive.
