Sports

Yashinsky: It's Time for Tigers Pitcher David Price to Uphold His Rep

September 23, 2014, 10:01 AM by  Joey Yashinsky

David Price was supposed to be the missing piece.

Add him to an already-loaded pitching staff and the road to the World Series was supposed to go through Detroit. That was the plan, anyway.

Price’s performance has resembled that of a teeter-totter -- up one minute, and down the next. 

The former Cy Young winner has toed the slab nine times for Detroit thus far, and it’s troubling to say the least that the Tigers have not won consecutive Price starts at any point. 

Brilliance Is There

Brilliance is obviously there.  It’s just a matter of unleashing it more than a couple times a month.

He was near-perfect in an emotional return to Tampa, allowing just one hit over eight dominating innings (albeit in a loss).  Yet, a handful of days later, he lasted just two innings against the Yankees, giving up a zillion hits and letting in a zillion runs (those were his actual numbers). 

And it’s continued like that since.  A good one followed by a bad one. 

His runs allowed over the last six starts look like this: 1, 8, 1, 5, 1, 5.

It’s good news that the pattern suggests tonight will produce a low number.  It’s bad news that the guy can’t seem to carry success from one start to the next.

And the Tigers don’t have sufficient wiggle room like they might have in years past.

They lead the pesky Kansas City Royals by just a single game.  Each team plays six more times, and the Tigers can ill afford to give any more away. 

In all likelihood, they will make the postseason in some fashion; but it’s obviously much preferred receiving the automatic invitation as opposed to having to play your way in with a one-game roll of the dice in Oakland. 

And the lefty Price will have as much impact as any Tiger player in how those standings shake out.  Of the six remaining contests, he’ll get the ball twice.

Slam Dunk? 

Tonight should be a slam dunk. 

It’s one of the league’s most feared pitchers, David Price, against an anonymous gentleman named Scott Carroll, who brings with him a ghastly 5-10 record and a matching 5.01 ERA.  In fact, Carroll’s best sport might not even be baseball -- he was a star football player in high school and served as Kyle Orton’s backup at Purdue.

So you should be able to tally one in the win column for tonight. 

The Tigers should coast to a stress-free victory.  Maybe the Indians swing the bats a little and drop the Royals at home. 

You could wake up tomorrow with the Detroit club boasting a full two-game lead with just five to play.

Deal Needs to Pay Off

It all depends on David Price. Will he come dressed as the “near perfection in Tampa” Price, or the “get touched up for five runs against the lowly Twins” Price?

The Tigers paid big to get him here.  The man he replaced, Drew Smyly, promptly went down to Florida and pitched superbly -- seven starts, five of which the Rays won, without once surrendering more than three runs.

Dave Dombrowski’s final hour, blockbuster deal needs to start paying dividends.

The stage belongs to David Price.  The margin for error is gone.

On Tuesday night, he must be a star.



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