The baseball fans at Tropicana Field may have been happy to see David Price again on Wednesday.
The Rays certainly were.
The Tampa Bay Rays, who had lost 12 of 13 games, took it out on Price in a 4-0 victory over the Red Sox Wednesday.
Instead, old friend Matt Moore got the win with seven innings of three-hit shutout pitching.
Price is now 1-3 against the Rays with a 6.36 era since being traded by Tampa Bay.
“Bad. Again,” Price said. “I’m just putting us behind the eight ball early in games. I’m not setting the tone the way that I need to. It tough, but I’ve got to get better. I’m so much better than this. I’ve just got to get better. It’s crushing me right now, but I’ll get there. I’ve just got to pitch better. That’s what it is right now; it’s not something else. It’s not bad luck. It’s me, so I’ve got to get better.”
The Rays’ had a double and a home run from Brandon Guyer in his first game back from the disabled list.
“I think everybody in this building has admiration for Price and what he means to the organization,” said Rays’ manager Kevin Cash. “Anytime you get to compete against him, it is special. Especially those guys who were here. Matt was a young pitcher when he was here. They follow him, they listen to him and to go toe-to-toe with that guy has to be special for Matt. And he was outstanding.”
Moore had a no-hitter through five innings. He worked his way out of a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the sixth.
“I think I was able to not have that relapse where you’ve gotta reset. Even with the bases loaded there, just being able to get a couple of those outs and stay on track was probably the biggest reason,” Moore said. “(It helped in the sixth) to slow it down, not feel like I’m rushing or that I have to do something special. You could tell that especially Ortiz was taking, just making sure we were coming in the zone. … Curt and I were on the same page for most of the night.”
Thursday, Jake Odorizzi (3-3) pitches for the Rays.
