Does Red Sox’s David Price tip his pitches vs. Yankees?

The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-1, on Sunday, July 1, 2018 (7/1/18) at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees hit six home runs in the game, with five of them coming off Red Sox starter David Price, who has not done well at Yankee Stadium since signing that $217 million contract with Boston.

The Boston Red Sox recovered from Sunday night’s 11-1 beatdown by the Yankees to win on Monday, 4-3, against Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals. That win, combined with the Yankees’ 5-3, 11-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves gave Boston a one-game lead in the American League East.

But questions linger from Sunday’s game in the Bronx, with Red Sox lefty David Price getting lit up for eight runs on nine hits, including five home runs, in 3.1 innings of work.

Now, Price does not have a good history against the Yankees, based on these stats from ESPN:

Making his 40th career appearance (39th start) vs. the Yankees, Price fell to 2-6 with an 8.43 ERA in nine starts against them since signing a $217 million contract with Boston before the 2016 season. He has faced New York twice this year, allowing 12 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, and is 0-5 with a 10.44 ERA in his last five starts at Yankee Stadium.

Despite those numbers, there have been whispers that Price, who’s 9-6 with a 4.28 ERA in 17 starts this season, tips his pitches against the Yankees. Red Sox manager Alex Cora dismissed that theory, per WEEI:

“I always look, regardless,” said Cora, who is considered one of the best in the game at recognizing when a pitcher is tipping his pitches. “Even if he goes nine, or if he goes three, whatever. You have to pay attention to details because at this level everybody is looking for an advantage, everybody is. They do a good job, too.”

“We’re not using that as an excuse. We do it even when they deal. We were talking about it yesterday, Randy Johnson tipped pitches his pitches his whole career and he’s a Hall of Famer. At the end of the day, you have to execute. Location, percentage of fastballs, percentage of change-ups, any difference between his starts early in the season to yesterday, whatever we can find that benefits him, we’ll look for it. His willingness to accept the information and move forward, that’s the best thing.”

ESPN MLB analyst Eduardo Perez backed up Cora’s conclusion:

“David Price wasn’t tipping,” the ESPN analyst told WEEI.com. “David Price was throwing the ball too much on the inside part of the plate. The Yankees had a great gameplan. You look at all those cutters in, they still went to the other way. They were looking in and had a gameplan. Sometimes you tip your hat to a gameplay. But David wasn’t tipping. It wasn’t about that at all.”

9 immediate concerns for Yankees

The Yankees are 5-4 vs. the Red Sox this season. The clubs next meet on August 2nd to open a four-game series at Fenway Park in Boston.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.