VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) -David Price pitched five scoreless innings Thursday night for Class-A Vero Beach in his long-awaited professional debut, about a year after he was drafted No. 1 overall by Tampa Bay.
Coming off a left elbow strain that forced him to start the season in extended spring training, the 6-foot-6 left-hander threw 49 of 73 pitches for strikes. He touched 98 mph on the radar gun, allowed three hits and struck out four with one walk.
Vero Beach beat Clearwater 2-0 in a game delayed 1 1/2 hours by rain.
“A year later, it felt good to get out there,” said Price, who went 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 133 innings last year as a junior at Vanderbilt. “There was a lot of anticipation for this days, so the wait is finally over.”
It’s been a long road to this point.
Baseball America’s College Player of the Year, Price signed an $8.5 million big league contract on the Aug. 15 deadline – too late to get started in the minors.
After two weeks in fall instructional league, he returned to Vanderbilt to work toward his sociology degree.
Price pitched in two major league spring training games with the Rays and looked solid in both, but near the end of spring he began feeling pain in his elbow.
“Patience is a virtue – my parents taught me that when I was really young,” Price said. “I was just trying to hang on for a year. I kind of hit some bumps in the road, but it’s time.”
In his final extended spring training game on Saturday against the Yankees, Price struck out 10 in five innings, giving up a home run to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who was rehabbing a quad injury. Price said Thursday’s outing didn’t go as well as that one.
“My fastball command just felt a lot better the other day, but other than that, my slider felt good,” Price said. “… It was probably a little bit too much emotion on this one. It was my debut, so there was a lot of stuff riding on it.”
Add A Comment