HOUSTON — The Red Sox will try to lock down the American League pennant with a most curious recipe: David Price on short rest.
The $217-million left-hander will start AL Championship Series Game 5 against the Astros Thursday night at Minute Maid Park, with Boston holding a 3-1 lead in games, because the team’s ace Chris Sale needs more time to recover from a stomach ailment that hospitalized him on Sunday night.
“He still feels weak,” Red Sox Cora said of Sale, before Boston outlasted Houston, 8-6, in Game 4. “He lost some weight. I know that’s hard to believe but yeah, he did.
“He didn’t throw a bullpen today. He’s feeling better compared to [Tuesday], but physically, he’s not there yet. So I think if necessary, he’ll pitch Game 6 [on Saturday]. He feels that he’ll be ready for that one. And we’ll go from there.”
After the Red Sox’s win, Cora announced that the team would start Price, who started Game 2 Sunday night at Fenway Park and allowed four runs in 4¹/₃ innings pitched, helping his team win, 7-5, for the first time in his 11 career postseason starts. Price warmed up during Wednesday night’s win, only to never enter the game.
The rail-thin left-hander Sale beat the Yankees in AL Division Series Game 1 at Fenway Park, and then threw an inning of relief in their ALDS Game 4 clincher at Yankee Stadium. He started ALCS Game 1 against the Astros at Fenway, giving up two runs over four innings as he labored through 86 pitches, and it was the next day when he wound up hospitalized.
A Game 6 start — which the Red Sox are hoping to make unnecessary with a Game 5 victory — would give Sale six days of rest.
The Red Sox stand as the one team of the four semifinalists who have 11 pitchers, rather than 12, on their championship series roster. That decision could hurt them with Sale sidelined.
Asked if he regretted the Red Sox’s roster construction, Cora said, “Not really, because knowing the way we were going to use our catchers, how aggressive we could be with them, we needed that extra hitter. You’ve seen already, Mitch (Moreland, who is limited by a right hamstring ailment) has pinch-hit twice for Christian (Vazquez). He got a base hit. He got a hit-by-pitch.” And both times, second catcher Sandy Leon pinch ran for Moreland.
Cora added: “And also we knew Joe could give us multiple innings, (Heath) Hembree, (Brandon) Workman. So we were pretty sure that we could use those guys on multiple innings. We rely on our starters. And then we expect them to go five, six innings, just like they do.
“So that’s why we kept it at 11. Is it perfect? We’re about to see. Obviously we didn’t expect (Sale) to feel this way, but it is what it is.”
Major League Baseball officially resolved the spy vs. spy drama that involved accusations that the Astros tried to steal signs from the Red Sox in the ALCS and, previously, from the Indians in the ALDS. The Astros were acquitted of all charges, and MLB said in a statement, “We consider the matter closed.” As The Post reported on Tuesday night, MLB determined that the Astros deployed an employee to ensure that the Red Sox were playing fair.
“We were playing defense. We were not playing offense,” Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ president of baseball operations, said on Wednesday. “And we want to make sure it’s a level playing field and we’re letting the guys on the field use their skills and tools to determine who wins this series.”
Countered Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, as per The Boston Globe: “I think it’s a situation where I don’t think that person was per se stealing signs. I also will tell you that person was told in the other series against Cleveland that he should not be in there, and yet he went back in there. So …when they say they’re doing this to protect themselves, they’re also not listening to authorities from above.”
