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MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS RED SOX

October 23, 2018

David Price

Boston, Massachusetts - pregame 1

Q. I'm just wondering if you're going to warm up in the bullpen tonight, considering how well that worked out last time?
DAVID PRICE: No, I'm not going to do that tonight. I had a good catch out there a little bit ago, so I'll carry that into tomorrow.

Q. You said you found something when you did warm up. What did you find and how is that helping you?
DAVID PRICE: Just something that makes my delivery just flow a little bit better, kind of put my arm more on time for every throw. Just put me in a position to execute every pitch.

Q. Can you talk about the Dodgers' lineup and what would be some of the keys facing the Dodgers.
DAVID PRICE: They have a very good lineup for a left-handed pitcher and a right-handed pitcher. I'm familiar with some of the guys in their lineup and just going out there and executing pitches. This is the same game we've been playing all year long against a team that a lot of us probably aren't that familiar with. I think we're all excited for it.

Q. I'm going to throw in a Vandy question here: How well do you know Walker Buehler? Do you guys workout together at all, and what impresses you about what he's done and his first full Major League season?
DAVID PRICE: I know Walker very well. We keep in contact. For him to pitch with the injury that he did, his junior year at Vandy and to still be drafted in the first round, and to be able to have surgery and to come back and to throw the baseball the way that he has, that speaks volumes of Walker's work ethic. I know Ron Porterfield, the trainer for the Dodgers, who was my trainer in Tampa for my entire career, he has put in a lot of work with Walker, as well. So I knew he was going to be in good hands.

We speak every so often. I see his highlights on TV and stream him a message about that. But I'm happy for him. I'm very happy. Hopefully -- obviously one of us is going to win a World Series, hopefully it goes to the elder of the Vandy guys.

Q. When you were with the Rays and the Blue Jays, and even the Tigers, the Red Sox were always kind of the enemy and maybe the bad guys to some degree. What's it been like over here, and especially this year's team? We've heard Cora talk a lot about the humility and the togetherness.
DAVID PRICE: That was one of the things that Cora talked to us about, just going out there and playing the game the right way. I feel like Boston has played the game the right way ever since I've been here. Just a lot of times they're better than anybody else, they get under your skin and they have a bigger payroll. I feel like teams with lesser payroll could kind of resent the Red Sox in that way.

But we just need to continue to do what we've done all season long, starting in Spring Training, especially the past or the last I think two weeks of Spring Training, we won quite a few games in a row. And that was good. That was something that we talked about. And we talked about winning the Grapefruit League championship or whatever it is or for the best record out of the Grapefruit League, which we were able to do. And that was where it started.

And we've played very good baseball all year long. And AC has led us extremely well. So he deserves a lot of this credit.

Q. Did you get a ring for that?
DAVID PRICE: I think you get a trophy.

Q. The clincher in Houston obviously was a big day for the Red Sox but also a big day for you personally. You've mentioned some of the narratives that you've been responsible for. Have the days since then seemed a little bit lighter for you, different at all? Do you feel a little relieved? Do you feel better? How would you describe it?
DAVID PRICE: I guess "lighter" is a good word, yeah. Yesterday we had media day. I didn't have to -- I got to look forward to it for the first time in a long time. Today it's definitely a weight lifted off of me for sure. Not like food tastes better or anything like that. But it was time. And I'm definitely glad that the time came and we moved past it. And I look forward to doing the same thing tomorrow.

Q. Your changeup was huge against the Astros, and obviously it was a great pitch against righty hitters. Can you talk about how you developed that pitch and why it was so effective, why it's such an effective weapon for you?
DAVID PRICE: James Shields is how I developed that pitch, just being with him early on in my career and the changeup that he has possessed over the course of his career, and for him to take me in the way that he did, and to play catch with me every day, unless him or I were starting that game. And just being able to work on it every day with him. One of the guys that had one of the best changeups in all of baseball, to work with me on it every single day, that was huge.

Q. When you mentioned the Grapefruit League, winning Spring Training games, had that ever been an emphasis in all of your springs before, let's win as many Spring Training games that we can?
DAVID PRICE: We didn't really talk about that. I think I remember AC talking to us about it. I think we had a chance to win that day. If we won that day then it was over, and I believe we did. He just brought it up. I don't think anybody else in the room -- I'm sure there were some guys that might have known our record at the time. I don't think I've ever known our record in Spring Training. But he knew. And he knew that was, I guess, kind of the first step. And I've never really heard of an emphasis put on winning Spring Training baseball games like that.

So that happened at a good time for us. AC said all the right things, and it kind of just carried on to the regular season.

Q. Everybody at the beginning of the games and throughout the games looks at the scoreboard for the radar gun and how fast the pitcher is throwing. I'm curious from you, early in the game does it matter or do you have a sense of how hard you're throwing or how well you're throwing? Does that radar gun matter to you or is it more about command and control?
DAVID PRICE: I think the hitter will let you know how your fastball is that day, whether or not they're taking good swings or seeing it well or whatever it is. Honestly when I look up at the radar, it's after a changeup or a cutter, something of that nature. And I know the velos that I would like for both of those pitches to be at, and if they're not, I'm probably not throwing it like my fastball. That's one thing I look for. Whenever I'm looking at the radar gun, it's not for fastball velo. If I'm out there throwing 90, 92 and right-handed hitters are hitting it over the first base dugout, that tells me kind of everything I need to know.

Q. Are you having more fun than you've been having previously?
DAVID PRICE: I always enjoy doing this. Just because I failed in October for about nine straight years, it didn't take away my passion from baseball. This is something I fell in love with whenever I was two years old. So the ups and the downs, I knew they were going to happen. I've definitely had many more downs than ups in October, but I've got a lot of baseball left.

Hopefully I have a whole lot of October baseball left. This is why I came to Boston. I knew we would be in this position, year in and year out. So I'm happy that we have made it to point and everybody in our clubhouse, we all want four more wins.

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