Bases Covered is a roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
After suffering a strained left forearm during spring training, David Price made his long-awaited season debut for the Red Sox on Monday. His performance was what you might call “uneven:” it wasn’t sparkling, but there were some encouraging signs for Boston fans.
The lefty needed 88 pitches to get through five innings in his team’s 5–4 loss to the White Sox. He allowed three earned runs on two hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Price told reporters after his outing, adding that he felt “good” but will need to work on his fastball command.
Price also said he was confident that a healthy rotation could deliver something special in Boston.
“If we can, all five, just feed off one another, I think we can do some special stuff,” he said. “We know how good our defence is and how well we swing the bats. If the starters can all hit our groove kind of at the same time, I think we can win a lot of games.”
Here’s why the Red Sox should be optimistic about Price.
What was Buster Posey thinking?
On Monday, Hunter Strickland nailed Bryce Harper with a pitch, after which Harper promptly charged the mound. Punches were thrown and the benches cleared, and one moment in particular stood out to fans watching the chaos unfold: Giants catcher Buster Posey stood back as Harper charged the mound rather than trying to get between him and his pitcher.
Strickland denied intending to hit Harper with a pitch, but the action has been seen as retaliation: in the 2014 NLDS, Harper hit two home runs off Strickland. The whole attempt at revenge seems stupid (after all, San Francisco won the World Series in 2014), but did Posey think so? Is that why he stood back? Or, as one theory suggests, did he know Strickland was going to hit Harper, and therefore stood back with instructions not to interfere?
Here’s Ken Rosenthal taking a look at what went down.
Human after all
The results of Mike Trout’s MRI were revealed on Monday, and the news wasn’t good. Trout, who left Sunday’s game injured, tore a ligament in his left thumb and will undergo surgery.
The two-time MVP will miss six to eight weeks as he lands on the disabled list for the first time in his career. The worst part of all this news is that Trout was enjoying his best year yet, which means the injury has marred what might have been a historic season.
Quite the comeback
The Houston Astros, down six runs in the eighth inning on Monday, managed to rally to beat the Minnesota Twins, 16–8. The Astros put up 11 runs in the eighth inning to pull off the remarkable comeback.
“We have shown that no matter how far behind in the game we fall we’re going to try to continue to push good at-bats, and I think that’s what we did,” said Carlos Beltran. “We were able to put good at-bats out there. We got good results and with men in scoring position we were able to get those in. I mean, it’s a team effort for sure.”
Edwin heating up
Cleveland’s Carlos Santana and Edwin Encarnacion hit back-to-back home runs on Monday in the fourth inning of their team’s 5–3 win over the Athletics.
Encarnacion, whose dinger travelled 451 feet, extended his hitting streak to eight games. The slugger was off to a slow start this year—not a surprise considering he tends to heat up as the season rolls on—but he’s starting to find his groove.
