u200bBy Tom Verducci
Midway through last season, saddled with a 4.76 ERA, David Price had an epiphany. It came from watching fellow Boston Red Sox lefthanders Chris Sale, Drew Pomeranz and Eddie Rodriguez throw bullpen sessions. He noticed that all of them threw from the third-base side of the rubber.
“David is very smart,” said pitching coach Dana LeVangie, then the team’s bullpen coach. “I mean, very smart. He wondered, ‘How come I’m not doing that?’”
Price had pitched almost exclusively from the first base side of the rubber since joining the Red Sox in 2016, except for a start June 24 last year, when he tried the middle of the rubber.